The Secret Lives of Endermen
by Geia Akyama
Summary: What do Endermen do when you are too afraid to look? How do they live? These questions and more explored by Henri Lamark as he travels with these mysterious beings to unravel the secrets they hold.
1. Chapter 1 (Ender Study)

Year XXXX day 12.

Thirteenth journal in the second year of the Enderman Study

By Notch, this study has turned out more fruitful if no less dangerous than I had first thought it to be. My expectation was that I would finish within a year but I can now see that this will take much longer than that to compile all my final notes. This journal entry and all that came before it are written in the furtive moments when they are not looking, usually at dawn or dusk. Since the Enderman do not see me with a pumpkin on my head, I have managed to become a part of their group if only as a tolerated straggler with a wolf. They are smart, much smarter than previously thought so the less human I act the less likely I'll be attacked in my sleep, which is fortunate since necessity, dictates that I observe their sleeping patterns.

Also be aware, what you read here is not my complete findings only my rough notes. Once the study is finished, I will compile a complete report to submit to the council for their consideration. All I can say is that what has been learned by the miners from observation is generally wrong; they haven't seen even half of what these nocturnal monsters do. I consider myself privileged to have witnessed what I have; I have seen the secret lives of these lanky, black skinned giants.

From a genetic perspective, all Endermen and their females are of the same mold but since they are relatively new the average person assumes them to be the same in every aspect, I'll go into the details of the genders in a later report once I can accurately identify males from females.

Each individual of a generation has the potential to pass on mutations through each generation. Due to environmental and mechanical pressure along with natural selection and some of the differences I am seeing suggest that they are in an experimental stage of evolution. What is unknown however is if Genetic drift or flow is the operative factor among the nocturnal beings. To be sure they are filing into our lands in a way that suggest they're radiating from a unknown point (Perhaps the Far Lands) through observations alone I would wager that the populations are at a standstill.

Speaking of Gene drift I have noticed some very interesting traits among the family group I have been shadowing for the past few months, not the easiest task with a pumpkin over one's head but it is the price you have to pay for science sometimes. All Enders will ignore you when you don't look at them directly or cover your eyes in a large squash but there are always a few from each of the groups I have been studying that seem somewhat aware of me on some level. Most notable the children seem aware on an intuitive level while some of the adults seem to be aware on an unconscious manner and are able to avoid brushing against you by accident.

Those that are aware of my presence have not turned out to be hostile and they do not look like they can quite focus their glowing eyes on me but watching them move in relation to me when I get close is somewhat unnerving. If I had to wager there is a mutation among the species that allows them to notice humanity in a general way. The aggression with them becoming fully aware of us could very well be instinct driven or an acquired adaptation since they are expanding their territory into our own. Some force is making them expand unless they are filling niches that were previously occupied by something we are unaware of. These Endermen may simply doing what is natural and filling in the gaps to which end I fear natural selection may not be on our side given their abilities to outrun and out maneuver us when we make an individual aggressive toward us.

Now to my direct observations. These Endermen travel in large groups ranging anywhere from fifteen individuals to at most forty-five each group is organized in some fashion and I'll figure that out later. While impossible to tell currently, I believe there are several breeding pairs in each group and, like with wolves there must be a ranking system for status and organization. On some nights I have witnessed an entire group (they are more like family clans than anything else as tightly knit as wolves but fluid like with sheep) pitch together to build a large structure in the night that a single pair will enter.

The structure has a convoluted entrance to block out the light and it is so dark even the extremely light sensitive monsters can spawn in it during the day. I can only guess as to what the structures are for since on the nights they are made an entire group gathers around it so closely it is impossible to approach without touching one of them. This behavior and the results of such a building lead me to believe that this is a mating ritual where a pair will conceive a child.

After perhaps two or three weeks the pair that entered the crafted building chooses a suitable dark cave (again I must guess since the cave chosen always has a monster spawner in the tunnels leading to the deeper chambers) and stay there while the rest of their group travel the area. The end result is something precious, an Enderchild smaller than a man is though they grow quickly enough to match the adults within a year. The children have white eyes and it is not until they are two months old that their eyes turn green.

In larger groups, I have noticed up to five of these small Enderman near the center of each traveling troupe. Whenever the far-flung members spot a miner or armed human (I have come to call them the Sentries), the children are picked up and carried away to a safer location. The strategy works well since to my knowledge no one has reported killing pygmy Endermen.

Twilight is on the horizon so I must finish this before they wake up and step out of the cave for their nightly work. I have finally established a work schedule so I can make entries regularly and to feed Kefka and myself my wolf without losing sight of my specimens. I do feel a need to apologize to the miners and builders who feel they have been victimized by the traveling Enderman; I have had to sample their fields when my rations run short. I hope that leaving redstone and lapis lazuli in the place of the lost crops makes up for their losses.  
>As I organize my thoughts, I'll write more.<p>

Henri Lemark


	2. Chapter 2 (Gender and Eyes)

Year XXXX day 28

Working notes: Gender and Eyes

I do believe I've finally found a way to tell males from females though until I can verify the genders in a timely manner it's just a hypothesis seeing as they lack external genitals and are androgynous to the untrained eye. If I am correct and the individuals I have marked with harmless dye behave in the manner I have noted for genders then I can proudly proclaim myself as a growing expert. The key differences are subtle and are difficult at even medium to close range to spot. The average miner would be more interested in running from the Enderman he just angered than in knowing if a male or female was chasing one but regardless the information must be shared.

It is all in body length ratio; males are slightly taller and longer in the leg than the females and have longer claws. Eye color aside though there are some definable traits that distinguish the two apart if you can get close enough without aggravating the Enders. These differences are subtle and I imagine mistakes will be common until I find a better system since there will be shorter males and taller females in any given breeding population.

Females: Generally shorter than the males (Up to a four inch difference has been noted) shorter claws on hands and feet. There is a barely discernible waist in the body region similar to human women and females actively search out threats if a child is nearby. When a threat is found, they are the first to react and the last to back off if a miner tries to run. Roaming groups of five individuals found on a field usually have two females in them.

Males: Taller than the females and with somewhat reddish tint at the base of their claws, they have large teeth when their mouths are open but these are hidden when the mouth is closed. Males are quicker to become aggressive and react to the purple-eyed state of females instead of initiating the color change. Males will pick up blocks indiscriminately including TNT and Glass placed by canny miners who don't look at them directly. Often at dusk or dawn you can see them wandering into sunlight and retreating quickly unless provoked to charge resulting in serious injury or on rare occasions death.

What comes to mind most now that I think I have identified genders is how they do not seem to have gender specific tasks the way we do with child raising and family income. One does not go out and haul blocks around for whatever reason while the other sits back to suckle the young until they are strong enough to learn to fend for themselves. The gender roles are surprisingly equal with the children riding on the backs of either parent while both work usually side by side.

Aside from gender differences, I have noticed that the changing eye color of Endermen may be an indication of their emotional status. Red is quite obviously the color for aggression, anger or aggravation and the behavior they show miners who gaze upon them is also shown in a clan most often when a stranger enters the group and walks to an established member. Usually both are male and I believe it's a dominance thing since the newcomer if he loses the 'staring contest' gets treated harshly and is allowed to stay as long as his hasn't challenged the dominant male of the group.

Speaking of dominance, I have come up with names for the pair that run this particular clan, Adone and Effar. Adone is still holding her daughter (I've come to call her Sasha since that's what the whispers sound like when she's nearby) close since she's not yet three meters tall and her elder son Kor roams the clan with a mixture of green and red. I think Kor may try to push his father out so this may become most interesting; Effar watches him carefully with similarly green-red eyes so he is definitely aware of his sons' actions.

Back to the subject of eye color I have tentatively identified five colors to emotions and this only applies to the pure colors they have unusual mixes of two or three on occasion and there must be a nuance am missing. Green is the normal color in the group so I have come to believe that it is the content color; there is also purple, which has been mentioned since breeding pairs display this routinely. Females display the color first and any male, should she not have a mate, follows with the color to a lesser intensity, when threatened the purple mixes with red and the Enderman showing this combination becomes extremely violent to any perceived threat.

Blue is the color of worry and indecision usually only the younger Enders get this color, as they age they don't display it as often. Experience and large groups reduce the frequency of this color in a clan so unless something catastrophically terrible were to happen it would be impossible to see one Sentry group or even an entire clan with blue eyes. When Kor first encountered a greenhouse he wandered aimlessly around it looking at the glass and going so far as to scratch the surface with his claws but his father took the structure in stride and tore a glass block free of the wall to get at the wheat inside.

Pink is a rarity I have only seen a few times but I can say with confidence it's the color of fear. Unlike blue, a whole clan can have this color if they detect rain approaching quickly and drop what they are doing to find or create a hasty shelter from the damaging weather. Ender children who see water for the first time approach with caution and pink eyes and when splashed the pink intensifies while they make the most terrible noise of pain which draws all adults to them in literally an instant.

After seeing this for the first time, I was stunned to see what the Enders use their pearls for but that can be saved for another entry since it is almost morning, I think they have more use for the blue-green orbs than we do.

On a personal note, this is the last of the paper I have brought with me so I must either barter for more during the day or figure out how to make some without a crafting table. Getting the materials will be easy since the nomadic Clan I'm currently shadowing is vegetarian and they prefer sugar cane above wheat though they will eat both if they are available. For obvious reasons they avoid watermelons, apples and pumpkins since the wet interior of the fruits will cause harm when ingested and of course, they refuse to eat meat even if they come across a Netherrack trap with cooked meats where they can reach.

P.S. Thanks to said traps, my wolf Kefka and I have enjoyed reasonably fresh meat on the go so I have no worries about needing to hunt or kill monsters for food.

Henri Lemark


	3. Chapter 3 (Kor gets PWN'd)

Year XXXX day 30

It took me two days to make my own paper from the pealed outer layer of sugarcane and I will have to perfect the process. I think the grid I laid out and the sticky sap works to make a complete strip but I simply must flatten and clean the canes before I use it because otherwise the strips fall apart and are useless. Out of the eight sheets, I made only three survived. Perhaps after I lay out the first layer of cane skins I can mash the edges together with a stone and then press the second perpendicular layer into the first with the same rock. Leaving it out in the sun to dry may also be better than heating some large rocks in a fire and resting the newly made sheets of paper on top of them.

That is both here nor there, something has happened today and I am still shaking from what I have seen. As I suspected Kor did indeed try to take over and has been pushed out, at first I worried about how my presence would be taken after the dispute but it seems I've been adopted into the clan somewhat like other wandering Endermen that join the group. I am getting ahead of myself, back to the beginning, yesterday, when I knew that Kor was going to move against Effar.

Traditionally Effar and Adone are the first to leave the cave the clan has used for the day followed by their offspring and everyone else. I usually leave with the last group, which I think is a wise choice after seeing what happens to those that try to act above their status. Yesterday I saw Kor first and he is one of the adults that seem generally aware of where I am; as he approached, I felt he would attack. Indeed his eyes were the most intense red you have ever seen if it weren't for the reduced vision of the pumpkin, I swear I had looked upon him with naked eyes. I am convinced he was posturing to assert himself as dominant over me and he took long enough about it that his parents made it out of the cave before he did but all noticed the display.

That whole night Kor made everyone tense and miserable, lashing out at random and taking blocks from others, even going so far as to bare his teeth at his sister, Sasha backed away quickly and Adone bared her teeth at Kor. I am surprised Effar let it go on for so long before cuffing his son soundly and sending him sprawling on the ground before leading everyone to shelter for the day. Even in the comforting darkness, Kor wouldn't stay quiet and made a great deal of noise that kept me awake until the sun was well up in the sky.

Today Kor started at it again this time he went right for his father and the two locked eyes and quit moving, I would have expected some sort of movement or posturing something different from what I have heard happens to miners but it was the same. If you have ever locked eyes with an Enderman you know what happens; you look at them they look at you and as long as you do not look away, they won't attack. The clan did not wander in search of food or move blocks around the children didn't play and the women made sure they stayed quiet, everyone was waiting for the situation to be resolved and I feared that there would be a stalemate. I worried that it would last until the sun came up.

The horizon was lightening and some savvy wolves came out to hunt in the thinning night before Kefka had enough of the waiting and she howled in response to her wild brethren who by the sound if it were harassing a flock of sheep. Normally Endermen do not pay any attention to wolves since they do not pose any threat but Kefkas' outburst startled Kor and he shifted his gaze. What came next was highly predictable, Effar attacked and his sons' inexperience was telling. With tooth and claw Effar drove Kor to retreat and chased him out of the clan, Kor ran and I'm sure he's somewhere licking his wounds.

Everyone had to go back to the cave we had left since morning was nearly here and I was ready to take my place closest to the cave opening with a few other Endermen when Sasha walked past with her hands dragging on the ground. Kefka dodged her nimbly but I was more interested in seeing where I could set up new sheets of cane paper to notice this until she had made contact and picked me up. Her smallest finger easily wrapped around me and no matter how weak their long fingers look, they are definitely strong.

I got carried deeper into the cave and deposited by some of the leaders distant female relatives, I know I've mentioned that there is a kind of organization I don't understand and I've neglected posting my findings but I think what Sasha's done has elevated my status a bit. I'll save that for later I am starting to run out of good cane paper.

From my new position I have to see that this cave is actually in use, here and there I see torches (both normal and Redstone) so someone has been here and is working this cave. Looking around I saw blue tinged eyes and with help from my own stomach, I figured hunger was an issue. I had four full stacks of sugar cane I planned on using to make paper but looking at the Enders around me I thought it best to make up for their lack in harvesting and set three out for them.

My gift was well received and everyone grabbed a portion and ate, even the youngest who I have yet to name took some though he has trouble chewing through the tough outer skin. He gladly waited while I used my concealed knife (I hide it in my sleeve and only with a cupped hand do I use it to cut anything to give the impression of maybe having claws of my own) to pry the skin off and ran off the happily eat his meal under his mother's watchful eye. Effar and his mate grabbed some before retreating deeper with faintly violet tinged eyes. I think one lucky Enderman is going to get celebratory mating for staying the leader.

Sasha surprised me by walking toward Kefka with a piece of cane in hand and tried to feed the wolf, I almost laughed at their expressions but instead I took out a chunk of rotten flesh and held it out to the young Enderwoman while the wolf looked at the putrid meat eagerly. She is smart so it was not surprising at all to see Sasha take the meat and offer it to my wolf instead, Kefka ate gingerly from it since she hasn't quite gotten use to Endermen but food is a great motivator.

I had better stop writing now, the scratching of my pen is bothering one of the first Endermen I could tell from all the others thanks to his under bite. I would rather not have him irritated at me for waking him up so I will pick my thoughts up and set them to paper later.

Henri Lemark


	4. Chapter 4 (Clan Organization)

Year XXXX November 12

I have finally come in contact with a miner for a few supplies like wood and raw food and got up to date on what is happening in the world and I finally learned the date so I am quite happy about that. Rumors of miners trying to find ways to tame Endermen worry me since they are equal to us in many respects and it would be insulting to them to try. Not only that it is downright dangerous since even wearing a pumpkin they can still get you if you touch them.

I've decided to put in writing what I have found out since my assertion to a mid-low ranking member of the clan. I hope at this time that whoever reads this will forgive me for not writing on the subject of status within Ender society. Being alone for so long with only Kefka for companionship has changed me in ways I didn't think possible so I have to put an effort into doing things the old way. Starting from the most privileged and working down. This model works on the roaming formation of Endermen, which is echoed linearly in caves in concentric circles on the plains. Imagine if you will the growth, circles of a tree where the center most rings represent the dominant pair of any clan.

My status in the clan has been elevated thanks to the leaders daughter so now is the best time to share the differences between status and how it works. Within any clan, there is one pair of individuals that decide when to go out and they generally lead everyone for the night. As you might suspect the closer one is related to the leader, the more privileges you have such as access to the most promising mates and the right to get the best foods available. While the alpha male is apparently dominant, I have noticed Adone wandering far enough in a direction to bring Effar after her. Is there co-dominance in operation with each of them more or less governing their gender in the clan?

After the leaders and their immediate family are the females of breeding age, their mates and the children. They prize their offspring as much as we do so even a low ranking female gets the privilege of having their child eating nearly as well as the leader. When roaming the children and mothers form a lose circle near the leaders and they're protected from danger by the distant male relatives of the dominant pair. This inner circle is rarely seen and when danger is near the children are whisked away, the kids take the treatment rather well like kittens and stay quiet while they are moved.

Below the families' and their children are unattached males and females who are either too young to bear children or are too old to bear any more; this is where Sasha would be if her father weren't the leader. These individuals do most of the grunt work if a hasty shelter must be made and don't always come from inside the clan. In some cases, they were once members of the lowest circle that managed to raise their status in the clan, and were accepted into it as permanent members. These youngest individuals have the responsibility of gathering food for the others and they bring their stashes back to the caves for everyone to enjoy while the older ones work the insides of any rest cave into a comfortable configuration for everyone. Often the younger females are taken under an older female's wing and are allowed to handle an Enderchild as if it were their own; females who receive this kind of tutoring tend to handle their own offspring much better than those that did not.

At the very edges of any clan are the newcomers, whenever you see lone Endermen traveling with no connection to any of their kind then these wandering individuals are likely seeking a clan and they inevitably join the outer fringes. These individuals have the least privileges of all and often catch flak from others, usually from adolescent males born in the clan who are honing the skills they'll need to survive once they're old enough to leave on their own. This outer ring consists almost entirely of juvenile males and the occasional adult. Of all the rankings this group changes the most as individuals come and go on their search for a compatible situation.

In caves, the more privileged Endermen get to sleep deeper in where there is no chance a stray beam of light will get them while the lower ranks get gradually closer to the entrance. When food is scarce the higher ranked members get a larger share and in the case of me providing food along with Sasha showing me favor I established myself as a valuable provider for the third level. I suppose now I can look forward to having to move blocks in my fashion and helping with mating structures though I don't really know how I would do that. I do not understand the Enderman language but from what I have gleaned, it's as complex and organized as the many tongues of man.

Armed with this new information I've built a hypothesis on how new blood is brought in to not only this clan but any of the roaming clan's I've seen. Driving impertinent males out spreads genes to other clans to prevent inbreeding, this means that within a group the females bring in less verity than the males do and with this pattern eventually there must be a change to keep things fresh genetically speaking. Perhaps a change of leadership allows things to become slightly more diverse but I have no idea how such a change would affect the group. One would hope it wouldn't be like with wolves where the new leader kills off the displaced males offspring.

Given this structure I think I am as high as I can get on merit or on strength, I won't survive an attack from one of them and for obvious reasons I can't be a part of the breeding circle. Maybe being a little closer to where the action is I can get better information on Ender society since just being lifted to a better position has yielded this much information.

On a different note I think it's become fashionable to be seen feeding Kefka, I've seen not only Sasha but several other Endermen of all social strata offering her chunks of meat, Keffy enjoys the attention and even lets a few of the Enderfolk pet her as long as they are holding food at the same time. My only concern is that before my task is over I'm going to have a very fat wolf.

Henri Lemark


	5. Chapter 5 (Enderpearls)

Year XXXX December 5  
>Work notes: Ender Pearls and their uses<p>

Last night it rained, the thunderclouds formed as quickly as they rose above the mountains and disaster struck with lethal precision. I thought it was just going to be another cloudy night when lightning and thunder shattered the silence then it came, the water. Everyone but Kefka and myself scrambled for cover under anything that was tall enough to serve so the entire clan was scattered in a pine forest under trees and rocky overhangs, almost everyone was hurt some more than others because they'd been climbing the steep faces of the mountains to find a way through the pass Effar was leading us through. The ones caught climbing took the most damage.

I couldn't just stand and watch them suffer or die if the rain didn't let up even if it's predominantly Effar who chooses the caves, without the moon as a guide and no clock since I dropped it in a river on the way here I felt a sense of urgency to get them somewhere safe. The decision was made for me when a Creeper did what it does best and snuck up on me during my distraction to gave me only enough warning to sprint out of its range before it exploded to reveal a natural cave between the spreading roots of pine trees.

Those that dared the plunge in the rain dove into the cave and into safety while I worked hard to collect the materials the Creeper had scattered to make a rough roof over the cave to protect them. I do not know how long I worked like that; collecting materials to make covered walkways to the trapped Endermen so, they could get to the cave. At one point Effar had joined in and yanked logs from the covered areas under trees and slapped them on the edges of my work so that the pairs of Enders supporting a severely injured clan mate could move to safety with less worry about sticking an elbow or arm outside the hasty rainshield. The rain left open wounds similar to burns on the Endermen and they cradled the wounded limbs with care, some of them were absolutely covered in burnt flesh and I wonder if they will survive the night.

And I found pearls, Notch preserve me there were several pearls on the mountainside of those that didn't make it to the trees in time. I picked up the ones I saw and carried them back to the cave with me; the hardest was the last one. His mother hauled Tiny, the Enderchild with trouble eating sugarcane to safety under a rocky outcropping soon after it started raining but his father had been up the mountain. I watched him dropping to ledges and teleporting to get to them when the rain killed him, his pearl rested on the ledge just above them, they didn't see him die but I think Tiny and his mother knew. I will give them the pearl from the ledge.

I have neglected this topic for quite a while out of pride and willful ignorance I suppose. Since I don't often see an Ender Pearl held by a living Enderman, I had little information to go on and only the rumors spread by miners of not being attacked if you had one. This rumor is false of course; if you are holding, a pearl out in the open and you look at Enderman they will attack viciously to get it from you. As to what they possibly do for a miner aside from looking pretty only time will tell. Surely, there is an enterprising young man out there trying to figure out a way to use them.

Also, it is imposable to see a pearl on a live Enderman, while they all have one they don't hold it or wear clothing to carry one, it is a part of their body like a soul or living essence and they condense it at need. I have noticed this condensing effect on nights when the clan is caught out in the rain and they've made it to some kind of safe shelter. Those severely injured whimper and moan while the healthy members condense their pearls and in groups of three, they push the pulsing orbs against the wounds, as the injured are healed the ones doing the healing begin to tire and look ill.

I watched as Effar healed as many of his clan as he could before he had to stop and rest so Adone and Sasha took on the task. Though I held seven pearls and perhaps I could have imitated the procedure something made me hold back and instead to give them all to Effar. These had been his people, his friends, maybe even his family. However they grieve for the lost, Effar is more knowledgeable than I about how it must be done. The only one I kept from him was the pearl of Tiny's father, that one I gave that to his mother the moment I entered the cave.

They had been busy expanding the cave but it was still small. No matter your rank you were close to others above and below you, even those that don't dig were pitching in to deepen the cave and making it comfortable for everyone. Then only light came from the lightning outside and the glowing eyes of fearful Endermen, and of course their active pearls that pulse like a heart.

To them the pearls must be sacred and revered; if one of them dies because of the environment, they gather around the dropped pearl and mourn as a group before picking it up. If a human kills one of them, they destroy the threat if they can and take the dropped pearl with them. I have not seen an Enderman die without any kind of catalyst but I can only assume that if one died of old age or illness it would be the same.

The only good thing I see from this is learning about an alternate food source for this clan. In the mountains, there is not much natural sugarcane or wheat so they eat mushrooms instead. It's a lean diet and everyone got a thin ration of fungus, some went hungry in favor of giving the injured something more to eat to aid in recovery. Any miner whose farming those foods that these Endermen prefer may find their crops decimated if they are searched out. If necessary, I may have to sacrifice the last of my raw sugarcane if something more substantial isn't found soon.

P.S. Kefka hung around Tiny during the whole incident and howled mournfully as she noticed some of her favorite Endermen missing. It seems my wolf thinks of this clan as her new pack and I cannot blame her, she's from a social species and once the doors were opened with food she took to the Endermen readily.

Henri Lemark


	6. Chapter 6 (Mountain Clan)

Year XXXX December 11

After the rain the Endermen were wary of going out at night and away from cover so they climbed the mountainsides with care since rocky overhangs were uncommon and rarely tall enough for them but at last I think they reached whatever destination they had in mind. The pass lead to a mountain valley with a lake feeding the river I dropped my clock in and lining the lake was carefully planted sugar cane. With the stars out and the moon high it was absolutely beautiful to look at the reflections of the heavens through the tall stalks of the reedy sugar canes I should find a painter and bring them here at night so the image can be preserved for those who appreciate landscapes as much as I do.

As I had suspected the Endermen fell upon the crops like locusts and ripped them up from the ground. Only Tiny did not since he has been watching me harvest the stalks so he leaves the base alone so he can have more if he waits long enough for it to grow back. Whoever planted these is going to be devastated by the loss of their crops and I'm running low on Lapis and Redstone so I will have to find another method of compensation for future raids on man maintained crops.

While they ate, a second clan descended from the mountains and Effar went on the offensive to meet their clan leaders with his mate on tow. Whatever passed between the two clan leaders must have been encouraging because the other clan fell in beside my clan and while they didn't eat sugar cane they did replace the crops with a few of the missed scraps so there would not be a total loss for whoever was farming here. They were not quite sure what to make of Kefka or me but they left us alone since I am not a threat.

The other clan is nearly as large as this one and with my trained eye I noticed them carrying meat in hand and eating it. I suppose with the rarity of edible greenery the mountain clans had to adapt to a carnivorous diet or perhaps their diet lead to them living where they do. With so many new Endermen around and some purple tinged eyes among the mate less ladies I have come to know I foresee a social shuffling between the clans and free flow of breeding individuals. If I were so bold as to make a hypothesis without facts I would wager that this meeting of large clans might account for large-scale diversity in a group that accepting the occasional roaming male cannot account for.

A little cheer brought about by new kids is just what my clan needs after their losses to the rain and it will give Tiny some friends to play with since he's the baby of the clan. Sasha in particular has a following of eligible young males; in fact, if I look carefully all unattached Enderfolk of Effars' clan has crowds of the opposite gender around them. There is more than fifty Endermen and women in the valley along a scattering of children, most of which look younger than Tiny. Just as things seemed peaceful and most of the sugar cane had been devoured there was a moment of chaos and panic when a miner dug his way out of the ground and all but the lowest ranking individuals and the leaders vanished.

I took it upon myself to tackle this miner back into his shaft before he or his dog scared every Enderman off and therefore leaving me without the source of my observations. The man's name was John Harris and he was coming up to search for food after his dog had searched out some gold in the deeper underground caves. It never occurred to me to train a companion to find minerals but it is a concept that thrills me, perhaps I can train Kefka to track certain things? That will have to be left for a later time when I have the resources to teach Kefka and have an idea of how to effectively do so.

John was very understanding of my position and agreed to tunnel to the other side of the small hill by the lake before leaving the area altogether. After trading some paper for some of the cooked meat I had on hand I climbed out of the hole he made and covered it with dirt, I was happy to see some of Effars' clan pacing and some of the other clan as well. Thankfully, as time passed since John's appearance every Enderman came back and the various courting activities started once everyone was assured that the threat John had represented was gone.

The meeting had a festive air to it with both dominant pairs talking while their clans mingled freely. There were some fights as the two different groups figured out their strengths but no one was hurt. Mothers with children held onto their youngest while the older children ran and played a complicated looking game that involved imitating Creepers. The little imps are quite good at the hiss too, more than once they would creep up on me and sent me running because I believed there was one of the exploding creatures behind me.

Tiny played with the youngsters of the other clan and walked around with them while holding a dirt block, this game must have some purpose in their development if I could just figure it out but so far, it eludes me. A few of the children beat at the ground with their hands and try not to look at Tiny while others move with their arms held tightly at their sides while hissing like Creepers. Tiny pulled at my arm to get me to play but Kefka pushed between the two of us, the strange Endermen are bothering her and I think she is keeping those she can away from me. I hope her actions don't bother anyone, she is growling softly and showing the signs of feeling threatened with her hackles raised and her ears laid back.

The last note I'm going to make is about Adone, recently she has been acting very motherly and has had one hand curled into a fist ever since Kor was banished. I have only glimpsed the pearl in her hand in fleeting moments as she grabs Effars hand at night. It is very small compared to the pearls left by deceased Endermen, just a hair smaller than a human eye and glows slightly less than an adults pearl. There is a good chance Adone is about to bear a child in the near future and I hope to be in a position to witness it.

Henri Lemark


	7. Chapter 7 (Sven is Born)

Year XXXX December 25

Today is a special day and not just because it's Christmas. The mountain clan left the shared cave early and came back to a clearing in the pine trees nearby several times with blocks in hand that can only be made by humans; Iron blocks, lapis blocks and other manufactured materials like that. There were also metal chains as fine as a woman's necklace, some diamond tools and braided strings of spiders thread. The mountain Endermen stuck these items decoratively in trees and used the blocks to make an altar of sorts, I wasn't sure why at first but there was so much ceremony in the placement of each block that it must be a long held tradition for them.

Once my clan got up they gathered whatever they could find, unbroken stone, coal and iron ore, even Obsidian was brought in. The sheer wealth of the ores represented made my palms itch to snatch one of the pickaxes dangling from a tree branch and harvest them since I'm low on such things myself. Thankfully since I'm not ranked very high I wasn't expected to help with the altar or with the glass tent and cup they were building over it. Whoever those blocks had belonged to will be surprised or dismayed to find their resources missing but I hope they'll be able to find them here when morning comes.

Everywhere I looked intensely green eyes and smiles met my pumpkin'd gaze, or what passes for them on Endermen. It is more like hey drop the lower jaw to partially expose their lower canines and unhinge their jaws just enough for the skin at the corners of their mouth to hint at a smile. To be honest it is a little unnerving until you get used to it. Sasha is positively ecstatic and fussed over the chains in the trees to make the stolen torches reflect their light on them in a certain way. On closer inspection, the chains are made of gold so pure that it dents and bends easily under my fingers, the chains are definitely going to be missed.

Preparations took a long time but since its winter, the nights have gotten longer. Bless the long nights, for the Endermen are quite active and full of energy. After the rough placements were, determined Adone and Effars' respective families took over the arrangements and put the fine details on everything. They used their claws to etch strange glyphs on the soft surfaces of trees and clay and branches dipped in Redstone dust were used to cover the ground in a makeshift red and green carpet.

The moon was at its highest point before the two clans were done working on the ceremonial altar and the structure was amazing. Glass blocks stretched as high as the Enderman could reach and the cuplike structure they built held snow from the higher peaks in the mountain range. With the moon up it looked like a chalice of light or milk and the altar itself was lit with torches they must have taken from houses. The light played off the gold chains; metallic blocks and Redstone powder in a stunning way as though each item had a light within itself that was only now being released. There was another worldly quality to everything and I felt like I was seeing something so ineffably sacred that I just stood still near Underbite (Not a creative name but it's how I identified him at first.) who I think is distantly related to Effar.

When the full moon was directly overhead Adone and Effar along with their respective parents and Sasha mounted the altar and arranged themselves with Adone at the center. The pearl she has been carrying glowed so brightly I had to narrow my eyes against the blue-green light to keep from being blinded. It dimmed quickly and for a moment, it looked like Adone was cradling a star in her lap before the light exploded again and this time I was blinded.

When the light faded and my eyes recovered, enough to make out the altar I finally saw just how small a baby Enderman was. The tyke could ride on Kefka's back if she allowed it and was so small Adone could easily hold it in one hand with her claws supporting its head. It cried loudly for the species, even in the back I could hear the baby wailing for something. I wonder why adults are so quiet if they can possibly be this loud.

Effar waited with ill kept patience while Adone snuggled her new baby before he got a chance to get a look at the kid with that smile on his face, he got a little too close for his own good it turns out. The small Enderchild reacted immediately to its father's proximity and stretched its wee arms as far as they could to go grab onto Effar's lower fangs. The poor old man jerked his head back from the unexpected grab and yanked the kid out of Adone's lap with a startled expression on his face and his jaw hanging lower with the added weight of his kid dangling from the canine teeth. The kid had a good grip too; it hung from its dads face and kicked its feet happily while Effar tried to get him off. With those big claws, it does not look easy to get a grip on a squirming target that's delicate so the shorter claws of the females seem necessary to handle the babies.

It was funny to watch and I think Sasha was trying not to laugh herself silly by not looking and covering her mouth. The mountain clan leaders chuckled as Adone untangled her baby from Effars' face and held him close to her chest while the kid cried. When it stopped wailing the baby was passed to Sasha and finally to its grandparents before they left the altar to show the baby to the massed clans. There are so many Enderman here I wonder what's going to happen when the leaders go their separate ways.

Baby Endermen are just like human babies, so small with chubby features that it is inevitable to feel protective of them. After the kid was introduced to everyone the mountain clan brought out human foods to celebrate and as with the diamond tools and the gold chains, I know someone is going to miss their cakes, cookies and mushroom stew. Everyone enjoyed the unusual feast and I awkwardly got a cookie passed my way by a female of the mountain clan. I have a feeling that by not eating I might offer a grave offence, one thing I have noticed is that you do not want to offend any Endermen. They have pride and honor in their own fashion and dueling is how they resolve the more serious offences, minor offences are resolved through language, which is as available to me as learning to breathe water without a potion.

I will not know for a long time if this is a boy or a girl but for Sasha's sake, I hope it is a girl so she can look after a little sister who will stay with her. If it is male, I worry for it after seeing what happened with Kor. Either way the kid's a good omen and the first of hopefully many after the tragedy on the mountainside. When everyone is asleep though I plan on going to the altar and taking the raw ores for myself, just the Redstone alone is enough to help me give plundered miners something for the troubles caused by nomadic, vegetarian Endermen.

Henri Lemark


	8. Chapter 8 (New Years Eve)

Year XXXX December 30

It's almost the New Year and Adones' baby is five days old, I find myself thinking of it as a male for no reason so until I learn otherwise the little guys going to be a boy in my mind but I won't give him a name until I'm sure. I would like to avoid some embarrassment of identifying this one by a gender specific name. The boy's very near sighted from what I can tell and Adone holds onto him constantly except for rare occasions when she needs both hands for a task. The kid clings to her neck like a collar and protests being handed off to his father and sister at first before he latches onto them and quiets down. On an unrelated note, I do not think he can talk; I've become so use to hearing the whispering around me that the kids' nonsense sounds stand out like lava in a forest.

I have always suspected that Endermen were not mammals with their lack of body hair and mammary glands but seeing how they give birth confirms it. This idea should not be taken at face value though since the platypus while technically a mammal lays eggs like a bird instead of birthing them live like wolves. Endermen are very parental however, care for their young like mammals, and help with the development of the child so that it grows into a well-adjusted adult. The social structure ensures that mature adults always watch the newborns and it gives young females a chance to learn what to do with babies before they bear one of their own. It is a good structure that hints at cultural origins and is practical to prevent fatal accidents by inexperienced mothers.

As for feeding the newborn, the clan has taken to finding mushrooms and scavenging for cactus from houses as we cross the mountain foothills with the other clan. Ever since the kid has been born, we've been on the move over the range and we are beyond where rain usually falls, officially in the rain shadow cast by the mountains. Soon it will be easier to find cactus than mushrooms unless we travel the boundary between the two, which may also provide regular shelter. Deserts are unforgiving to the unprepared and I am by no means stocked with enough water or food to survive more than a few days.

It's not just me, I have to worry about; I have to think of Kefka too. I will not kill my wolf just so I can follow what's become an obsession; she's the closest thing I have to human companionship. Keffy looks to me to provide her with food, attention and love. The Endermen do still feed her but will they keep it up if I die out here? Will wild wolves attack and kill her for losing her wild edge? I don't know, I just don't know and the uncertainty makes my stomach revolt at the thought of food. Kefka, I do not know how much you understand but I will not abandon you for this quest; I'll find a way for us to survive together with them.

I do not see the desert yet but every night the far-flung harvesters come back with just a little more cactus each night, which is mashed into a pulp and mixed with pulped mushrooms into a thick paste for the baby. Sasha watches the process with interest and hovers around her mother when the mixture is fed to her younger sibling. The boy didn't know what to make of the offering the first night but once his mother had coated her claws with it and more or less painted him with the mix the kid had to get rid of it the only way he knew how, by trying to eat it.

Now he eagerly gums it off his mothers' fingers and reaches for the raw ingredients when he smells them. I find the smell unappealing and I imagine it is slightly bitter if not downright bland. Both mushrooms and cactus cook to a soft mushy texture and are palatable for human consumption but for obvious reasons Endermen don't handle fire, if I dared to start a fire and cook some cactus I wonder if they'd eat it or if the Endermen would turn their noses up at it the way I do with raw cactus.

Today the two clans separated with a great deal of shuffling among the members, there was even a small group with Endermen of both clans in it that set off independently. The new group has a mixed lineage and no leaders that I can see now but if they stay alive, I think the issue will be resolved to their satisfaction. A part of me wants to go with them to see how it happens. The opportunity of observing an Enderchild grow to maturity is not something I can ignore; there will be other chances to follow a budding new clan later, I hope.

One thing I have noticed is that Endermen practice monogamy, Effar has not spent time with any female except Adone and the same goes for the other pairs in this clan. Several males may court an unattached female and the reverse is true if there are more females than males but once established a pair lasts until one of them dies. In the case of Amelia, Tiny's mother, it seems that the survivor will not take on another mate by choice instead of looking for another mate immediately.

Many males have shown interest in caring for Tiny and bring in more food than they can eat to share with the single mother so it may be possible for her to remarry should she so desire. So far, the ones showing interest are males a little older than Tiny's father was and they are being very careful in their approach. All of them make sure she is aware of their approach and always have something in hand to give her, usually food or something interesting like fence posts, iron doors or pressure plates for Tiny to play with. For her part, Amelia is showing interest in one of the Endermen and I think eventually they will be a mated pair, it will be the first time I've witnessed an unrelated adult adopting a child that wasn't theirs.

Adone keeps an eye on the young males we acquired with a critical eye, especially those who were interested in her daughter. Those she finds unworthy get chased a short distance and/or forced into submission by Effar. Submission seems a little harsh to me and I'm glad I have avoided the position; it involves being knocked over and being held on the ground and while your attacker bites at your neck. So far, I have not seen anyone seriously hurt by the display but there may very well be serious conflicts in the future, as the newcomers integrate.

I wonder if Sasha will stand up to her parents if she finds one she cares for, she is so timid and easily startled that I'm afraid she will be pushed around like she was with her elder brother Kor. She shows no preference about the four young males that show interest but she's not discouraging them either, which is in my opinion a good sign. Their courtship is going to be fun to observe in the future and I look forward to comparing Ender rituals to human rituals.

Any young Enderman hoping to become Sasha's mate is going to have to pass Adones' assessment first and perhaps even Effars' once he deigns to acknowledge his daughters suitors. Whoever gets to be her mate will automatically be a part of the highest circles of the clan, it's to the advantage of the leading family to have a newcomer they can accept and get along with. My Redstone torch is almost out so I will have to leave it here for the night, besides I am so tired my eyes literally burn.  
>Henri Lemark<p> 


	9. Chapter 9 (Courtship and Adoption)

Year XXXX January 10

Today is a very special day, I have to witness the mating rituals of young Endermen and a few days prior to it the mating of older individuals. The two methods are very different but I think I will start with the rituals of young Enderfolk first since it's far more interesting, I am rather excited since the two in question are Sasha and her new mate.

While skirting the edge of the desert I finally got to see how young Endermen court Enderwomen or at least how they court high ranking females, it may be different if both Enders are of similar rank. It started easily enough with Sasha's suitors searching out some heavy blocks, blocks that would usually require an iron or diamond pick for a miner to harvest easily. They carried these with them a fair distance from the clan under Adone's careful gaze and slowly the entire clan stopped to watch the spectacle. When Sasha stepped away and into the sandy outskirts of the desert where the males were, then things got interesting.

It started with the males swaying with their chosen blocks held in both hands, I identified gold ore, obsidian (they seem partial to it), and lapis lazuli ore. They held their blocks at chest and head level and their steps got more and more intricate as time passed until they were holding their blocks by claw tips and occasionally tossing them in the air to catch after a short time. The youngest male upped the ante by tossing his obsidian block high into the air and kicked up some of the finer sand into spiraling arks like trailing ribbons in a girl's hair before he caught the block again and continued to show off with fast movements and holding onto the block with careless ease.

It was like watching ballet dancers who have trained since childhood, their movements had purpose, meaning and were graceful like a bird in flight. I found myself moved by the display and like the rest of the clan; I stood mesmerized by it. Kefka also seemed affected and thumped me repeatedly on the leg with her tail with a happy smile on her muzzle. Many of the lower ranks crouched and watched the display with happily green eyes and open-mouthed grins while higher ranked clan mates watched with polite interest. Without a doubt, everyone's interested in who Sasha would take as her first and potentially lifelong mate, as the daughter of the current clan leaders it might fall to her to provide a new leader if Effar dies before a new leader is chosen.

I could almost taste the anticipation when Sasha moved to the Enderman holding the Lapis block and gently put a hand on it, and then she danced with the lapis holding Ender. Her dance wasn't so finely tuned but her movements complimented his beautifully. They each held the block and danced with it while the whole clan watched and the other two males stopped and sat on their blocks. Sasha and her chosen slowed their dance to the sedate swaying that had started the whole thing and together supported the weight of the block between them with their foreheads touching.

The energy that had been building eased away like a nightmare when the sun rises after a bad night and the whole clan slowly pulled itself back into its normal order after Sasha's parents and grandparents greeted the newcomer into the family with a great deal of physical contact and vocalization. Sometime during the greeting the other two suitors faded back into the clan's lower ranks and stashed their blocks beyond immediate view, I think they performed admirably so I hope they get to impress Enderwomen of their own. Judging from some of the looks I caught I think they may get another chance within the next few months.

One of the clan elders with nearly white eyes motioned for her great granddaughter to come over and muttered something over the pair with an unraveled block of blue wool in one hand and the pearl of her long lost mate in the other. For the past day this matron had slowly unraveled the wool she had been given and spun it into a long, lose thread that she now used to bind the pairs clasped hands together. Everyone was silent for this last ritual and with utmost reverence; the matron pressed her pearl to her son-in-laws chest with a few last words, which everyone echoed.

Sexual preferences and the ability to impress the fittest of the opposite gender are paramount to a successful species no matter what they are. With the stones, the three males had chosen the dance must have tested endurance and coordination, I am not sure why a generally ornamental ore would attract a female but it seemed to work this time. Depending on the tastes of the female, a male who dances moderately well with a heavy block like obsidian may be more desirable than a male who chooses a pretty block and dances like a master. There must be more to it than this but with current evidence I will have to leave it here for now.

Lacking any proof, I would say this ritual is both aesthetic and practical so that the females can chose the best mate possible to help them raise their offspring. The long slow courtship before the dance may help females decide which mates they would rather be paired with so that males they find suitable can concentrate their efforts on other things instead of flirting with someone who's uninterested. Being a good provider and physically attractive may also play a factor in the ultimate decision of which individuals become mated pairs as In the case of Tiny's mom.

Amelia finally accepted one of the older males who have been slowly courting her in a manner far less flashy than Sasha new mate did but string was still used to signify their union. The male is from the mountain clan and he's already begun taking on the role of surrogate father, Tiny's still wary of his mother's new mate but this is only natural for recently orphaned children. The new father is affectionate and has taken on the task of skinning sugarcane for his adopted son, perhaps to show the kid how to do it and slowly earn the Enderchilds' trust and acceptance. I hope the two can be friends even if they are not biologically related. To further this goal, I've slowly stopped pealing sugar canes for the boy so he can bond more closely with his new dad.

Henri Lemark


	10. Chapter 10 (Species Associaton Pt 1)

Year XXXX February 3

Consolidated notes-cross species association

For lack of new content to write about I've decided to take the time to solidify some of my earlier notes about Endermen with my new knowledge. The entries in question were made during my third month of this study and it's long overdue for rewriting. Looking them over I'm appalled I was so willfully blind to the subtle Endermen ways I now know and look forward to.

From the beginning, I have noticed other mobs reacting to the presence of Endermen but it is usually passive especially with slimes, zombies in general, and wolves, the three co-exist without competing for food or resources. In the case of Zombie Pigmen that are seen so rarely, they're overlooked completely. The Endermen use this to their advantage and use caves with zombie spawners in the deeper parts to safely bear children and keep them safe with very few exceptions.

Enderfolk ignore skeletons and spiders unless they attack first, a savvy miner can put an Enderman between themselves and an attacking skeleton to make the Enderman handle the bony creatures but the same tactic doesn't work with spider riding skeletons. Spiders are more agile than the Enderfolk and a miner must still be fast on their feet to avoid damage and an inadvertent glance at the Enderman or they will have two hostile monsters on their hands.

Silverfish seem merely annoy them more than anything, full-grown Endermen can walk through a nest of silverfish without much worry as long as they don't disturb the nest. The creatures bite at their legs and hands and are only dangerous if they catch an Enderchild that's too young to know how to teleport. All it takes is one cry and the adults swarm to the endangered child and take care of the menace but the silverfish usually get away with minimal losses. I've only see silverfish a few times so it was a complete surprise to find them surrounding me after a play fight between a pack of juvenile Endermen. I think they mistook me for an Enderchild at first because they did not dive right in to take chunks of flesh out with every pass and I was only saved a slow death by Kor who saw fighting these things like a game.

Surprisingly it seems they have the same opinion of creepers as we do but being so tall they see the green creature long before it sees them and take steps to avoid them. If one gets too close, the whole clan will teleport a short distance away and keep moving, this works best in plains with patchy trees and deserts where visibility is high. In dense forests and mountains, their tactic is very different and reflects human methods. When a creeper finds them first they retreat in small groups and yank up a hard block usually wood from a tree and dart forward to bash the creeper quickly before backing off again. Each group gets a chance to hit the creeper before another group come in behind the creature to hit it again. They rarely kill a creeper; more often than not, the combustible thing gives up and works its four legs to run away from its coordinated attackers long before it keels over.

Also on the ignored list are the food animals humans use and sheep unless the clans carnivorous. A vegetarian clan takes care not to kick the animals around and take time to smile at the plight of sheared sheep. They will however chase chickens, scare the birds into dropping feathers harmlessly, and take the odd prizes for use in crude ornamentation in rituals of birth, as was the case with Tiny and his parents. For obvious reasons, Endermen do not harass or bother with squid or fish but I wonder what they would think if such a creature was hauled onto land for them to get a look at.

The only monsters I have left out are those native to the Nether such as Ghasts, Zombie Pigmen and the Herobrine himself. Endermen do not get close to nether portals so it will be physically impossible to have an encounter in hell itself, not unless one was carelessly shoved through by a clan mate. Endermen could be at a distinct disadvantage being highly weak to fire and restricted to the ground against airborne enemies, they don't have the skill or practice to lob things accurately at long or even medium distances. If they could use even the simplest of bows, they might stand a chance but without proof, this is all just baseless theories of a lonely old man.

Well that pretty much sums up some of my oldest writings and reading over the pages I see I have many more entries to update. So far, I have traveled temperate and desert regions and spent winters in the subtropics but that's just with this one clan. I am sure other clans have claimed different regions as theirs so once I am done with this clan I must integrate myself with any clans I find in the highlands, tundra or even in the mangrove forests. I have only seen the tip off the iceberg figuratively speaking and as a man of science, it is my duty to provide the most complete picture of Endermen and their ways as I humanly can.

Henri Lemark


	11. Chapter 11 (Sven Talks)

Year XXXX February 14

Oh by the gods I have suffered quite a shock today! I have not paid much attention to the youngsters of the clan because the adults have been so fascinating with their interactions. The mountain clan members still eat meat and the plains clan still prefers their Vegan diet but the couples have been sampling the others food. The vegans do not seem to care for raw meat but the meat eaters do have a taste for wheat, I'm glad to know that they are not as limited in their food sources as I thought. Out on the plains where I first met Effar and his clan, there aren't many animals except for chickens and those are hardly big enough to be more than a snack for full grown Enderman.

I should have been watching the new children running around, Tiny's enjoying his position as the oldest child because he gets to boss around the younger kids when their parents aren't looking and he's still young enough to run to his mother for comfort when he gets caught at it. Sooner or later he be able to escape punishment so I hope he grows out of this soon, Tiny is enough of a troublemaker without his partner in crime Sven there to help in the youthful pranks but together they are nearly unstoppable.

Most of the Enderchildren have gotten their eye colors and have small teeth, claws, and they like nibbling on practically everything including Kefka's tail and on occasion and my pumpkin. I am lucky to have a few spares because they've done a number on the first one. Kefka had enough of being snacked on and treated the kids as if they were wolf pups, the adults were stunned but let the incident slide. I suppose the sooner they learn how far they can go with a wolf the better or they could possibly aggravate an entire pack. Wolves are organized and can match Endermen in combat especially when the pack is quite large.

Oh, back to where it started. Apparently I talk when I write and the newest offspring of Adone and Effar has been slowly learning English from my ramblings, enough to know some basic sentence structure and meanings at least. What he says sounds very awkward though and occasionally he gets so quiet I can't hear him. I was about to curl up for the night when the boy wandered over away from his family's watchful gazes and startled me out of my revere with one word; Hello.

At first I did not notice it but he shook me and said it again, the ink sack I was about to carefully puncture to dip my pen into splattered all over what I was writing and the text was lost. He didn't leave it there though; the kid smiled once he had gotten my attention and he tapped himself on the collarbone, said his name and pointed at me.

It is the easiest form of communication really. Gestures with simple words attached to them were just within my grasp while running on low sleep and a bolt of adrenaline from the scare. Sven is indeed a male and he knows I'm a sun dweller because his mom told him so, he also wanted to be my friend and could he feed the wolf. I became aware that Adone was watching her son at some point so it seemed best to let the boy give Keffy a scrap of pork and seem as non-threatening as possible. Last thing I need as the clan leaders becoming hostile, I would be chased away, injured or killed.

Our first conversation was short and by the end, Sven had learned my name, was trying a few new words before he curled up at Kefka's side to sleep, we sure didn't sleep until Sasha slunk over, and gingerly collected her brother with blue green eyes. I never considered myself a teacher but if Sven thinks talking English is more than just a momentary game I'll have to put some effort into being good enough at teaching to show this Enderchild how to speak intelligibly with humans. Maybe some of the other youngsters will learn with him.

The whole clan likes to keep an eye on Sven and all the females have gathered around Adone during the first months when the kid's eyes finally gained their coloring. It is a mark of status to care for the children of higher-ranking families and they can't get higher than Sven. Until he was old enough to run from the attention, he suffered being handled and mothered with grace most of the time and only bit a few overzealous caregivers a handful of times. There is no lack of sitters for the kids since there are more adults than children, which is good because these curious imps are good at getting into things.

Amelia in particular has benefited from Sven's presence since Tiny has made friends with the leader's son; her new mate basks in the glory of that status in a new clan and hides little treasures for the boys to find like shards of brightly colored stone or a blaze rod taken from a defeated miner. The boys creel over each find and they take the glittery prize out to show off to the other children. There's rarely a fight that draws blood but I wonder at what age the kids will start learning how to defend themselves from the threats in the world and how many will survive to adulthood in this clan. For now things look good and the whole clan seems happy with four new kids to look after since Sven's birth.

In other clans I have seen an Enderchild taken out by aggravated spider jockeys and the occasional creeper and would never wish that tragedy on this clan. Of all the clans I've shadowed this one has worked its way close to my heart I think mostly because I've finally come to see these creatures as people in their own right.

Henri Lemark


	12. Chapter 12 (Games and Endermites)

Year XXXX February 28

Thanks to Sven's little surprise I am learning things I never would have learned before. Endermen most certainly do have culture and a language we aren't able to hear or speak well if you are my age. I have done my best to say some simple words but one of the other kids, a girl Sven calls Inka, giggles so often I know I'm not saying tree and it makes me wonder what I AM saying. It cannot be too bad because the adults only look at me tolerantly and Sven has me try it again. According to him, I can more or less say hello and friend and a few other simple things, this will take a lot of practice because I bite my tongue when making their hissing sounds.

Sven's' growing mastery of the human language English has unintended benefits, I have begun to learn them meanings of Enderchild games and some small things about Endermen culture. Sven doesn't know it yet but learning all this stuff about their culture is far more valuable to me than he simply learning to talk is and I do not plan to disabuse him of the notion. He's just happy to have a new unusual friend to share and to teach who lets him try strange foods like dried pumpkin seeds seasoned with salt from dried pork.

I am still technically in the lower middle of clan rankings but with Sven around, I think my status is unknown. I am neither mated nor privileged but I'm seen constantly around Effars' son. Sometimes I feel like a sitter because I'm left with up to three of the kids at a time and sometimes I believe I am watched as well as the kids when an adult Endermen is around. I can't blame them; Tiny's already taller than I am while Sven comes up to my nose with the other kids being shorter still and full of energy. Once they teleport freely I won't be able to do anything about the young Enders because I'm just a man with a wolf and not nearly fast enough to run after them for long before they are out of sight.

The kids play variations of games I played as a boy such as Marco Polo and Tag but with an Enderman twist. In most cases the games are highly recognizable but in the case of Miners and Creepers there are nuances that evaded me when I first witnessed it being played. I can see how they might help with the growth and development of the kids in most cases and I'm thrilled to understand what makes these traits fun for them. I have even tried playing the games and I expect to fail at them but the kids love seeing me attempt to play their way.

Among the first games, I noticed and failed to understand was Miners and Creepers, a complicated seeming game that involves imitating various monsters. I now know that it teaches young Endermen how to interact with other Mobs to eliminate the most dangerous creature of all, Man. A group of children divvies up the roles they have to play with one kid taking the role of the Miner. The miner wins the game if they make a house without being killed and the others win only if they kill the Human. Joint wins are allowed if two separate kids "kill" the miner, For Example if the Miner looks at an Enderman and a Creeper gets close both the Enderman and the Creeper win.

One of my favorite games to watch but not participate in is the Endermen equivalent of Marco polo. The only difference is that it is not in water at all and it's in 'Marco's' best interest to teleport to catch another kid. Since I cannot do that, I get caught easily and hardly catch anyone. After the first few days, the kids use me to make sure the Polo's don't teleport to avoid Marco. The key is to either move silently to avoid being caught or to teleport as soon as you can to catch others. They also play other teleportation games like Tag and Hide and Seek where the first to teleport when they're not supposed to becomes 'it'.

While the kids play, the teleportation games I have come to see something, a creature about the size of a Silverfish sometimes appears but I've never gotten close enough to look at one, well alive that is. The closest adults run to where the beast is and stomp it to death so that all that is left is gray skin and purple insides smeared into the dirt, podzel, or sand. These things do not always appear when Endermen teleport but I can't help but wonder what they are. Are they parasites of some kind or are they some new kind of life that is created whenever an Enderman teleports? Where does the creature come from, is it at all possible to study them? I will have to see if I can catch one of these things and hide it in my knapsack in the future.

The third game I feel must be shared is what Sven calls Bobstones, even adults play this game and it's very simple. Using countless bits each player takes out some of the items they've collected and rattles them in their hands before casting their pieces onto a cleared space, they keep their pieces covered however. After the cast, each player call s out what they think will be turned over like how many dark things, round things, sticks, or gems. Once called everyone uncovers their cast and the items are counted, the one who guessed closest to the true amount without going over wins their call and those that go over obviously lose. They do wager on this game and Sven says he doesn't understand why they bet so what exactly is being wagered is still a mystery.

Bobstones is the only game of theirs I am pretty good at because my hands are so much fleshier than theirs are so I don't have to worry about one of the other Enders spotting something I'm holding. Sven translates for me so I understand what is being called and some of the adults who have been wary of me seem more comfortable now, maybe because I am doing 'normal' things with them now instead of being strange like other humans they've seen. I can't say that they accept me completely but I do think the beginnings of comrade are showing with some of the older ones actually inviting me into the game. If I can learn how to speak and understand the language, I will not be limited to playing when Sven is too tired to play and interested enough to talk.

All in all, I have learned more in a few weeks that I could have in another few years without the fortune of a translator. Endermen are not brutes out to kill us, they honor their dead, they can learn to speak English, and they gamble, play children's games and love trying new foods. Just like us, they care for their young and while I haven't noticed tool making or writing there is every indication of education so it may be that they have oral traditions and if all knowledge is passed orally then their language is obviously as refined as ours to pass along complicated concepts and meanings.

Henri Lemark


	13. Chapter 13 (Romero and Gypsies)

Year XXXX March 7

I got another striking surprise these past few days two if you count the discovery and ultimate education of Romero who looked and talked like a professional Mob hunter with his iron swords and weapons. He was particularly interested in killing Endermen and I was fortunate to have been out of his sight when he charged. The brute knocked my pumpkin off in his initial charge before I knew what was happening and Kefka went on the offensive just in time to draw the man's attention away from Sasha who was closest to Romero. It was a timely attack and the hunter pulled his eyes away from the clan to deal with Kefka and in turn myself once I fished my stone sword from my knapsack.

I feared for Kefka who started growling right away and the sound of the scuffle must have sent most of the clan scrambling for cover because when I looked up there were only the particles left from their passing, those odd creatures from before and a few wary males from the lowest ranks. Kefka and this attacker took some massive damage before I threw them apart and tied Keffy's mouth closed with braided strings I use to tie to the kids fingers so they can imitate the mating dances. I knew I would have to feed my wolf to help her heal and recover but the distraction of the string allowed me to focus solely on the hunter. He was younger than I was and appeared battle hardened unlike myself. Only my greater weight kept him down but he did his best to throw me off.

I had to sit on Romero and kick his sword away until he would calm down enough for me to shove my spare pumpkin over his head just in case someone returned the last thing I wanted was an aggravated Ender trying to get to this man through me. I cannot bring myself to write the details of what he said until he calmed down, they were very colorful words and I gathered that Romero had a particular hatred for Endermen thanks to a rogue that had taken out people very dear to him. Such things do happen; Kor was an example of highly aggressive Endermen and I shudder to think of what would happen to anyone, man or animal, that crossed his path.

I more or less forced Romero to listen while and told him off for the attack and I think it was the fact that I was commissioned to shadow Enderman by the Council that convinced him to leave more than any compassion for the tall people he hunts. In the end we separated, he retrieved his sword and stormed off for other prey while I hastily put my pumpkin on and raced to find some trace of the clan. It was Sven who found me, he's just old enough to teleport now and he popped up right behind me, latched onto Kefka and me, and took us with him back to the clan. His landings need work I fell three feet before landing on the ground in a heap and Kefka landed on me, still muzzled. I am just glad to be back with them so a little discomfort on landing didn't bother me. I must say however, I am very sore from that incident and I can't be sure what did it.

I was still quite shaken from the near tragedy; apparently, Romero had gotten Sasha with his sword she was whimpering when I arrived and Adone was rolling a pearl along her daughters back. Effar was wary of all manmade structures, it was rolling hills and sporadic trees for a while until something caught the clans' attention. It seemed insignificant at first, just some of the far ranged patrols standing still and looking around but as the main body of the clan drew near, they too stood and looked around.

I didn't know what was going on but out of habit, I followed Effar as he set off in a direction. The terrain was rough and I nearly fell several times but Kefka was there nudging me when I started to slip. I had no idea what was going on until I heard the faint strains of a stringed instrument and the high clear notes of a panpipe. Moments after I heard the music I saw the music makers.

Gypsies were making the music and their caravan consisted of wagons with brightly covered coverings drawn by large sturdy bull cows. They'd set up a pen for chickens and their kids were singing dancing and picking up the eggs the hens laid while the rooster chased a few hens relentlessly. Everyone wore gaudy colors and fine jewelry and around the campfire was the source of the music. Men and women alike were playing an eclectic mix of instruments and dancing provocatively and it was to this group that Effar and the others were drawn to. Gypsies are a peaceful people interested in living a free live away from the trappings of materialistic society but even they might defend against Enderfolk.

I wanted to stop them and tell them anything to make they stay out of the firelight but they went like moths to a flame, Effar ignored my feeble attempts to talk the Enderman language and he brushed past me as if I wasn't there. Even Sven and Tiny were mesmerized by the music and slowly walking toward the troupe. The other kids were still small enough to cling to their parents backs in a flash of horrible insight I foresaw the destruction of the entire clan thanks to my encounter with Romero. I was horrified and ran ahead to try and warn the travelers of the Endermen but they just smiled and took out brightly colored sashes of finely woven spider silk and waited for the first of the clan to walk into the gypsy camp.

When the first Endermen entered the camp loops of the silk was thrown gently around their wrists and pairs of gypsies guided their snared guests to the campfire where the music never stopped. In the end, almost half the clan was inside the caravan limits with sashes of bright silk on their arms and no damage or malice in evidence. They carefully got each Enderman and woman to crouch near the fire while the kids ran up and climbed over the dark skinned giants. Those with kids on their backs were spared being climbed on by human kids but the troupe did produce the mushroom and cactus paste babies are fed, and smeared it on the parents' shoulders and the young ones carefully ate it with pink and blue eyes.

Between the music and the gypsies I had nearly forgotten about the time but the troupe had that covered, there was a small cave nearby that they lead the clan to and after everyone was inside darkly dyed wool blocks were put around the entrance to block out nearly all the light. Inside this cave, which had only one large cavern in it, they put out food and set out some toys for the kids to play with.

These people treated the entire clan as honored guests and showed no fear of the otherworldly beings; they wore no pumpkins and somehow managed to speak the Enderman tongue with no difficulty. They even offered the clan foods they could only steal from humans and tended any open wounds with a dark paste that had a heavy medicinal smell. I was too astonished to notice them doing the same to my wolf, Kefka gobbled the raw meat they offered and leaned into their hands as the older kids scratched her behind the ears. It's so rare to see anyone respect and honor a monster that aren't a part of a cult and this, these people, they are exactly what I had hoped to create when I finish this mission.

I was treated to the company of several lovely young women and Kefka was allowed to run with the gypsy's wolves. I will not describe what I did but if you've ever found yourself in the company of true gypsies you know what happens if you spend a night or three with them but I did make it out of there with all my things and more than I intended to purchase. The adults of the clan seem bemused by the encounter and the Enderchildren ran around at night with the Gypsy kids on the heels of chickens and sheep. Each night they came back with wool and eggs and all the young ones were beaming with pride from their nightly work.

The experiences were very eye opening and at the extreme ends of how Enderfolk are treated. I'm glad to have seen that people can exist with Endermen without casualties and that even those who make a living from killing dangerous things can perhaps be taught not to kill with extreme prejudice. If I had the power of Notch, I would make the people as a whole imitate the Gypsy way since it is human ignorance to believe we are the only intelligent creatures in the world.

Henri Lemark


	14. Chapter 14 (Lady of the Moon)

Year XXXX March 13

Enderman Fairy Tales: Lady of the moon

Thanks to Sven's growing mastery of English and my interest in his people's culture I've come to learn a few children's tales. Endermen families are very similar to human families and while their stories are different, they perform the same function, to inspire and teach their young and to entertain. The first story Sven shared with me after the gypsies caravan had been left behind was one that made me think of a children's bible story. I will do my best to put it to written words but it is much better when told in person, since Endermen don't write that I've seen, all knowledge is passed on orally from parent to child.

~-/^\-~

When the world was made, Notch and two other gods created everything we know and several things we don't. Notch made the world and all the things that live on it, the trees the water the people even the Nether. He made a world for his worshippers to live on and granted them the ability to change it while his brother looked at the sky and its emptiness and filled it with stars and the moon and hid in the ground countless treasures for the people to find. Jeb looked at all things that were made and put them together so they could continue to exist without problems and watched as fledgling wolves, pigs and humans staggered around their new home.

It was a time of peace but Notch's brother, whose name has been lost to time, looked at his small creations and resented his brothers' great works and created creepers. He gave humans the will to kill and destroy and watched as man changed the world to the disadvantage of the creatures. Notch was displeased to have his new home spoiled and turned on his brother. It was not as quick as it is with humans but the result was the same. The fight that ensued destroyed the world that was and Notch's brother was banished to the Nether as its master, the Herobrine. During the battle, Herobrine was stripped of his power and it latched onto his largest creation, the moon.

Notch eyed the moon as he remade his world with Jeb and left it alone while noting one of his bothers last joint creations with Jeb wandering peacefully around the world, Endermen. Back then, sun and water did not burn them and they wandered the land living in caves where there was room, it was a time of peace but Herobrine's power was not quiet. With the moons light, the creatures in the remade world slowly became violent from tainted and reflected light of Notches sun and Notch once again sought the source of the pestilence in his creation.

While he investigated, what was causing his people to become violent Endermen came to worship the moon for its power and laid about it praises for not being as harsh to their eyes as the sun. Slowly the moon became a minor deity in its own right and became everything its worshippers thought it was and more. The moon looked at the darkened world and knew her power to be from a tainted source, monsters roamed freely under her watch and sun-dealing creatures fled her dim gaze but it was only Endermen that reveled in her glory. She watched in awe as Endermen built her a temple block by block with things they bought from humans and on the nights where her glow was strongest, the temple was radiant with nighttime's beauty. In the various pools, she saw her reflection and watched the Enderfolk raise their families in her light without becoming aggressive; they were immune to the tainted light.

As Notch became increasingly aggravated he looked at his brothers' creations and contemplated destroying them to fix the problem of aggression when he spotted the temple, it was not one he was worshipped at and it had been made by creatures that had no place in the world. Fearing that the monsters would somehow free Herobrine the god of Minecraftia struck the first blow. Much time had passed and his anger over betrayal drove him to strike the temple from existence and Enderman as well. The temple crumbled under his wrathful gaze as the sun beat upon the land with harsh cruelty. When Notch turned on the Endermen with Jeb's help, light burned them like fire and the water from the reflecting pools burned as well.

The moon watched in horror but with the sun up her power was limited; in a moment of clarity, she used all her adopted power to make a dark waterless place for her worshippers and sent all to that place where they should be safe from Notch's rage. Stunned he tried to prevent this by blocking the way of the Endermans' passage but succeeded in only sealing their refuge from the rest of the world as he had with the Nether. Those Endermen that were left behind were killed and their pearls scorched to dust.

It is said that in his efforts to break into the Endermans new home that Notch altered it somehow making it difficult to find by accident.

The Lady of the Moon, spent from her efforts hung limply in the sky where she resided and was locked in place by Jeb since she had an effect on the bodies of water on the planet. Ever since, most things in the Overworld hurt the Endermen and they quest to find the location of the Moon temple in the hopes of releasing her from her sky prison. They come to our world through portals they make and wander in search of the site.

~-/^\-~

I have never heard this story before, I have heard of Herobrine's creation but that's not quite related to this, and I'm uncomfortable with the thought that Notch had at one point attempted to smite Endermen from existence. This is also the first time I have heard of Endermen using portals, I suppose for lack of a better term I'll call them Endertportals. If they can enter our world through these portals would it be possible for them to go back, if it is one way that may explain their increasing numbers.

Theories won't help me without any proof to base it off so I will have to table these notions for a later time when I learn more. Until then I have plenty to occupy myself with like maybe teaching Sven how to write. He has been watching me make these entries and I've seen him try to imitate some letters in the dirt. It presents a challenge but worth it to be the first to first recognized to teach any Enderman to read and write in the human manner.

Henri Lemark


	15. Chapter 15 (Cveriss the Skywalker)

Year XXXX March 21

Enderman Fairy Tales: Cveriss the Skywalker

The past few days have been much the same as they have been since Valentine's Day with the usual gathering of food and child rearing. Sven is rather short for his age but he keeps up with the larger kids easily and Tiny is right there with him like an older brother. Since last entry, I have given Sven a large chunk of aspen bark with the alphabet carved into it so he can practice the shapes of our letters. Curved forms are hard for Sven to do smoothly and so far he makes short jerky movements that end with a pointy looking C or dented O and when he gets to frustrated, he strikes the characters out and quits trying for a while. Sven's a young Enderman and a privileged one at that so these setbacks may mean more to him than they should but he's every bit as stubborn as his father so he always comes back to try again.

I have learned a few more of the Enderman fairy tales and am putting them in chronological order as I think they occurred. The next one, the fourth I've heard actually, deals with the crime of pride. It reminds me of the story of Icarus who tried to defy Notch by using wings to fly to the sun only to have them scorched forcing the man to fall to his death. This story takes place during the first story actually, around the time where Notch began to feel wrongness in his world.

~-/^\-~

Cveriss was an unusual Enderman even as a child, he enjoyed swimming in water with squids and plucked fish from the rivers bare handed in a manner that humans have termed noodeling. His prowess brought his clan great fortune since they were never without food and he was often congratulated for bringing in armfuls of fresh food every day. He looked to the leaders second daughter, Zcuni, who was not yet old enough to be mated but his hope was that one day he'd be able to do more than be a simple gatherer.

One day when her time approached Cveriss had discovered a human material that others in the clan ignored because4 it vexed them. It was a simple thing, a block as smooth as stone, as breakable as glowstone and light as a feather. He had found a block of glass and it fascinated him from the moment he laid eyes on it. Light bounced off it, which made it too bright to look at for the most part, but in a moment of inspiration he took it with him to impress the young Enderwoman.

It worked, as he and five others danced for her attention his block caught the light from the moon and scattered it about the area like a small star unlike the dull blocks the others were using. The leader's daughter came to him and that night they were joined heart and soul for the rest of their lives under the eye of the whole clan and the Lady of the Moon. He preened over being a part of the upper ranks of the clan thanks to his new material and mate Zcuni and for a time it was enough to not scrabble around for food every day. For several years, he was happy to be a part of the leader's family but he always had a second love, glass. He searched it out with his new wife and took as much as he could to build with.

He built small at first; a platform to cross lava, a small cover to keep the rain off their newborn, and a wall to keep creepers at bay. He grew over confident in his skills, began building mazes and small houses, and preened as he built sky walkways. To all other Endermen it looked as if he was walking on air and they were in awe of the power that allowed him to walk into the sky. He came to be called Skywalker for this and Cveriss felt driven to go farther than he had before. Zcuni had become wary of his obsession over glass, did her best to soothe him when the material was hard to find, and calmed him when his creations were destroyed.

Her worry became outright fear when he went to the houses of men and stole glass from furnaces with their son in tow but found she was powerless before his driving desire to do more with it. When the temple of the moon was being made, the Skywalker ran to create even more monuments to his and the moons greatness and the twisting waterways he created awed all Endermen that looked at them. It looked as though the water was flowing between channels made of light during the day and at night; those same brilliant waterways dimmed and reflected the Moons brilliance at any given time of the month.

He build and built higher and higher in the sky eventually not even bothering to sleep or return to his family until one day he had built up to the clouds and looked around at the world. He felt like a god of his kind, creating things others like him did not understand and he sat on the edge of his little platform with his feet dangling over the edge. Dark clouds were so close he could stick a hand in them and it wasn't until it was too late that he finally took notice that the clouds were spitting rain and lighting on the world below.

Lightning struck his creation and platform and made it shake while the rain made it impossibly slick forcing him to move on hands and knees in an attempt to escape before he fell. Before he could escape to the lower levels of his last creation lighting struck Cveriss and he fell to the world below but he was dead before he struck the ground. His old clan found him in a pile of broken glass the next day, his accomplishments were viewed with regret, and distaste as the truth of his madness came out. He had been too proud of his things to care for his clan or family and it was believed that he'd been struck down by Notch himself for those crimes.

Henri Lemark


	16. Chapter 16 (Svrells' Dragon - Mitenote)

Year XXXX March 22

Enderman Fairy Tales: Svrell and the Dragons of The End

I woke up this morning under a pile of young Endermen AND my wolf, which is uncomfortable enough on its own without the added bonus of a Silverfish attack. The cave refuge of the night was littered with Redstone lamps that turned off as the sun rose so everyone took refuge deeper than they probably would have liked in a dungeon and it was in active use. When the miner that used it appeared with his iron pick, he panicked and started swinging taking out walls and parts of the floor with ease, the only problem was he swung at a Silverfish nest and, and of course they defended their home.

Turns out Sven got hit by the Silverfish and a fight ensued resulting in that miners death, Notch preserve him that he is given new life near his home, and a stalemate with the fish. Both sides backed off with varied injuries and I was dragged along like an Enderchild with Keffy barking madly at the fish. Here and there, those odd creatures mixed with the Silverfish and I could see how different the two things are.

The odd teleportation fish are roughly the same size as a Silverfish, if you shaved those little hairs off one that is and this new kind of land fish is darker with a purple tinge. If it weren't for the encounter with the Miner and fight with the swarm, I think the adults would have exterminated the nuisances but everyone was tired and needed to rest.

I have some injuries I don't remember receiving and the clans on hyper alert with Effar teleporting through the mines looking for something, maybe that miner or something else. He's refusing to leave the cave so I have time to put in words the third fairy tale about a young Endergirl named Svrell after Notch had banished all Endermen to another dimension.

When I asked what it was called Sven had been confused and asked his mother. What she said translates to 'The End of All Things' and the part of me that still appreciates silly humor spoke up, Banished to The End. As an afterthought, I realized that Sven and all of his generation would be learning about a world that they had never seen where dragons were real and it was night all the time. It must seem unreal to him since Mincraftia is all he has known.

~-/^\-~

After their banishment all Endermen had to adjust rapidly to their new world that was not empty in the least. Immediately they fell prey to large creatures that could fly and whose eyes glowed purple all the time. The winged terrors roosted in nests of bedrock atop obsidian towers, on occasion the creatures' eggs were found at the bottom of such towers, and Endermen left these alone since they were larger than a chicken's egg and they had an aversion to eating chickens eggs to begin with.

Teleporting was an Endermans' only defense against the dragons diving attacks but on occasion one of them was caught and killed. When caught an Enderman couldn't teleport away because of an unknown power that was given to the dragons, those that escaped a dragon alive said to was like being near Notch. They could only watch in horror as one of them was taken and either eaten, carried off to a nest or bled dry by the dragons of The End. It seemed the god of Minecraftia had created a surrogate of his presence to in this new world to finish what had started in the Temple of the Moon.

Svrell was born into a generation that only knew stories of green grass and blue skies and it seemed foreign to her in a world of pale spongy stone and black skies. Where light was comfortably dim all the time and food was found on the undersides of ledges in the form of twiggy fungus that grew as quickly as it was harvested. Though she grew up on a floating island in the middle of nowhere, she was told that there were other islands just like the one she was born on at the edge of what could be seen but this did not interest the girl at first.

To her, Dragons were a constant that were watched and avoided when you wanted to eat because that's when they could fly by and plucked you off a ledge. She was one of the many orphaned children in The End that had seen their parents carried off and it would have been easy to hate dragons after they took her parents away but she was old enough to know that baby dragons needed to eat just like she did and dragons ate Endermen.

She was just old enough to start to play with teleporting when she was taken by a dragon. On silent wings, it had snatched her from the middle of her adopted clan and its claws held her firmly in place. Svrell fought as much as she could while her clan chased her from landmass to landmass teleporting to any point they could see until the dragon flew into the far areas were nothing but the void and the sky existed.

Land rose and faded and she was resigned to her fate when and older, larger dragon than the one that held her attacked and she was knocked out of its grasp She tumbled trough the air and soon landed heavily inside a dragons bedrock nest with a hatching dragons egg inside it. Before she had gathered her wits or breath, she had a baby dragon on her stomach, mewling for its mother.

It is not known how she survived but when the dragon was old enough to care for itself; she rode it back in the direction that felt right for home. As usual, Endermen scattered like dust in the wind and it was only with the greatest effort that she got them outside to see her. By this time, she was a fully-grown Enderwoman ready to have children.

During her absence things appeared from the land of Notch; animals, items and other things that defied description littered her home island. Svrell used the stories to that world to teach her dragon what was better to eat and its health and vitality improved so much that it bore many eggs. The dragon was so successful in fact, that it out competed all others and its decedents repopulated The End. Pigs, cows, and sheep made better meals than the lanky creatures they had hunted before and the Endermen capitalized on it and herded the creatures to isolated islands so the dragons could eat the animals at leisure.

Both Svrell and her dragon grew old and there came a time when Endermen and Enderdragons co-existed peacefully. When she died, her grandchildren attached her pearl to a leather strap and tied it to the first tame dragons' neck. When the dragon died, it left Svrells ' decedents one of its horns and to this day only, those descendants are tolerated to ride on a dragon.

~-/^\-~

I have no idea how much fact there is in this story but the thought of something preventing Endermen from teleporting away makes a hollow pit in my stomach appear with nausea in hot pursuit at the thought of them being eaten like pigs. It is an uncomfortable thought and it made me wonder how these beings escaped that dragon-filled world to get back here.

Henri Lemark


	17. Chapter 17 (Prophesy)

Year XXXX March 25

Enderman Fairy Tales: the Prophesy.

This is the last fairy tale I know and perhaps the one most relevant to the events happening today. After having received news from a passing farmer that portals to The End have been found in strongholds and that ender pearls can be combined with blaze rods to create a new item called an Eye of Ender. You can use this new item to find those portals, and that humans can use the pearls to teleport like Enderman with the side effect of damage and on occasion those little hairless land fish I have yet to catch. I suppose the energy used to teleport is harmful to our biological processes so I am glad I've never used a pearl. My old bones likely couldn't take too much of that kind of thing, however I have been "carried along" when an Enderman teleports without suffering any ill effects so I wonder what exactly causes the damage?

Back to the task at hand, the last fairy tale that explains why the Endermen may have come to our world, and I am afraid of the implications if it's not just a child's tale. It may mean that these Endermen aren't being pushed from their home but that they're invading ours on a holy quest. The darkest tales of humanity have started from such a simple desire and if their quest turns out like ours have historically, then I fear for humanity.

~-/^\-~

Long after Svrell died, long after that first tamed dragon died. So long ago that the time has been lost to itself (I think this is the Enderman way of saying a heck of a long time) Enderman had grown so use to their isolation that they had nearly lost the ability to coexist with things that hadn't existed in their new home before. When a Human entered it for the first time the Enderfolk didn't notice the newcomer at first but the dragons sure did and the nearest one dove at the new food source with a will while its' rider panicked at the sudden movement and clung to their perch.

The human was nearly killed before the rider dismounted and dragged the outsider to one of the caves where Endermen had first lived in The End where the dragon couldn't go. The human was kept there, watched, and given and assortment of things to eat if it could before it was deemed well enough to be taken to the Seer. Its' words meant nothing to the Endermen and they hauled it to the oldest of their kind whose eyes had turned white with age, an old Ender who was said to have known the great Svrell as a child. The first human traveler to The End struggled and fought but was unable to escape and in due time it was brought before the Elder.

By the time it had been taken to the elder, the human had quit fighting and the elder followed the cues of its youngest children and pulled the terrified creature close to get an impression of it. Claws rubbed short from years of digging through the pale stone rubbed the face of the short being and touched it's various parts before pulling away and letting the human curl up before speaking in a voice that cracked like dry leaves. The true prophesy had been lost to what it had stirred up and only this small fragment of it remains.

"Lost though this Child of Notch may be, he brings a message of our salvation, a path back to our savior of the moon. Thought the dragons nest past the edge of Notches' attention to the world of burning light and blistering liquids she waits. Many will be lost, few shall return. Eternal grace and glory to those that dare to take the challenge."

When the elder fell asleep, her offspring took over caring for the human because the others looked at it with red eyes burning with rage. Children of Notch had been considered an extension of the insult Notch had given and the news that the stranger was one of Notches' sons spread like wildfire. The blood of Man is superstitiously thought to be thing needed to make a dragons nest behave in a way it hadn't done before and the only man they had was under the elders care and the dragon tamers jealously guarded the draconic secrets they had.

War broke out as the Endermen split into groups decided by how it was thought the future should be. Much blood was spilt by the end of the battle and the Enderman population was reduced by half. It was a horror never before experienced and one that was studiously avoided since.

The war had taken years and the peaceful survivors gathered in a handful of landmasses and held a council; they didn't want to make the same mistakes that had caused the war and the death of the Seer. For months, they discussed what was to be done and eventually the secret of a dragons nest was revealed. When a dragon was forcibly killed or if one died in its nest, its body dissolved into energy that pooled into the bedrock cups they made their nests out of. It was from these nests that the artifacts of Notches world came and the dragons were quick to kick such things out the moment they were found.

With no way to test it, the Endermen took the human, who had somehow survived the war, to a nest where an old dragon had recently passed and looked inside it. Inside was something amazing, blue and black color swirled with pinpoints of light and the energy around it made the Endermen uneasy while the human leaned forward. The Enders let the human go to the nest and watched as the strange pale creature hauled itself into the nest. As it touched the odd color, it slowly faded with a large pulse of the Creators Power.

They never saw the Human again but they took the surge of power as a promise of things to come, wherever that human had gone; it had been through Notches power. They began training large stable groups to venture into the world beyond the dragons nests. Each group was kept isolated on a landmass to bond and grow accustomed to each other's presence before they ventured into a portal, the groups became Clans that could breed and learn and grow without the need of a larger community.

This was fortunate since none that passed through Notches' Power returned in person but among the artifacts returned after the first groups travels were the occasional Pearls tied with red strings and food bundles tied similarly, just as it had been decided in the off chance that the explorers couldn't return. It seemed despite the bloody start that the prophesy was coming to pass.

It is hoped that another Human will enter the world one that is tame and that they can talk to but until they are the people of The End will endure waiting for a sign of Notches' blessing and forgiveness or that the Lady of the Moon is back to preserve them from that gods malevolent presence.

~-/^\-~

Is it just me or does the fact that Endermen consider Humans wild and tamable a tad disturbing?

Henri Lemark


	18. Chapter 18 (Leri the Miner)

Year XXXX April 2

I still can't believe yesterday really happened, it felt like it might have been the dawn of the apocalypse. Fire rained from the sky and an endless army of Zombie Pigmen poured from the jungle and nearby caves. As unreal as it seemed that morning started out so normally; Effar led the clan out of their little refuge for the night, the foragers wandered to collect food and the kids played their games under the adult's watchful gazes. The moon was in its' new phase so there was very little light and I was having a hard time keeping track of the Endermen in the jungle we had wandered into.

After we had pushed through it, the clan and I crossed a vast plain dotted with overlapping craters. I have seen such craters before from meteor impacts on similar plains when I was a boy so I didn't pay much attention to them at the time but I should have. These were much smaller, the size of a creepers explosion, and overlapped so much that dirt was gouged away to stone level. Upon reflection, I should have seen the strangeness, meteors gouge out stone as they plunge into the earth and these craters were too shallow for that and too neat to have been created by Creepers.

The clan was in the middle of the plain with no place to hide when I heard the Nether monsters, the unearthly cry of a Ghast before it spits fire the odd whimper when they fly near enough. At first, I thought I was hearing things and like the craters, I discarded it as my mind playing tricks on me. I didn't want to believe that Ghasts were flying or that the undead moans I was hearing belonged to anything but the normal zombies that roamed at night

When it started, the clan had no idea what was happening until they were caught in a firestorm. Zephram, Sasha's mate, (Sven told me it was supposed to be a human name but it's not one I'm familiar with) tackled his mother-in-law before she was hit by a fireball and Effar was caught between saving his mate from attack and saving his clan from destruction. He bellowed an order but chaos and panic took over as the Ghasts swooped down and started reaching for the Endermen with their dangling appendages.

Everyone scattered; children were picked up and teleported away, the younger males tried to fend off the weapon-baring pig zombies while I grabbed Kefka by her collar to keep her from running off. In the chaos, I saw Pigmen parts fly and heard Endermen scream in pain before I was bumped from behind by a teleporting Enderman and this time I felt the pain that is said to accompany using an Ender pearl.

I thought I would end up with the Enderman when he reappeared but I was lost on the way to his destination. There is another world you can see when you are lost when teleporting with an Enderman, I can't describe what it looked like for I only saw it for a second before I was spun back into the real world. If this is what an Enderman sees when they teleport, I think I can understand their aversion to the hairless Silverfish. This other place was filled with the creatures and when they saw me, I found myself the focus of a swarm. One latched onto my leg before I fell through the ground and onto roughly cut stone stairs with the beast still clinging to my pants.

I was lost for a long time in the darkness I found myself in and it was maybe five minutes before I realized that for the first time in years I was not near any Enderfolk, I felt fear of abandonment rising because I had no way to get back to Effars' clan. I have grown so use to hearing their odd language, seeing their glowing eyes looking down on me that the sudden silence struck as powerfully as any sword.

I refused to panic, I gave Kefka the command to find hoping she'd pick up on the scent of Endermen and instead her keen nose lead me to a subterranean lava lake with a broken girl near the edge. Her things were strewn on the ground her bag was broken and torn; it was a miracle she survived at all. I could see a ledge maybe a hundred feet above me, which I guess, is where this girl had fallen. I had no time to wonder for long before the girls' companions walked up, a creeper named Sul and an Ender named Endi. The creeper wasn't hissing so I just accepted that it was friendly and carried on picking up the girls' things and sticking them in a spare knapsack I had.

As the five of us worked our way to the surface, I learned that the girls name was Leri and she had been attacked by another miner in the caves before her fall. If only things had been better I would have loved spending time with an older Enderman from another clan that could speak English, but I took heart in the fact that Endi spoke flawlessly. It is indeed possible for Endermen to speak a tongue of man I just have to do my best to teach the young ones how.

Partway to the surface we found ourselves under some body of water and had to detour when skeletons got into the tunnel we had been digging, Sul headed back to take care of the walking sacks of bones, and we heard an explosion. That creeper was the first I had gotten close to, the first I knew that spoke, the first that didn't explode the moment it got close to a human. Am I as wrong about creepers as I had once been about Endermen? Can they be reasoned with and potentially studied in their natural state the way I study Endermen? I doubt I will really know the answer to that question, that creeper self-destructed to give an injured girl and an old man time to escape.

Once we were out in the open air there was time to rest for a moment and eat some golden apples before Sven showed up to bring me back to the clan, he fell back on his broken English that depended more on the general sound of a word than its meaning. He seemed wary of Endi but he took Kefka and me to his parents where the clan had holed up in a shallow cave that they were rapidly making deeper while the injured were being nursed to health by relatives and friends. There were plenty of burns and cuts from several different kinds of bladed weapons.

There were no fatal losses but some of the injuries might lead to complications. Raxun was comforting his adopted son while Amelia rolled a pearl along the gash on Tiny's back. The last conversation I had with the young lady miner ran through my head about the Herobrine being on the loose on the surface, that the monster of nightmares had thrown her down to the lava. I was also reminded of the Enderman fairy tale talking about the lord of hells power trapped inside the moon Perhaps there is some grain of truth to the oral tradition and if so which parts are true and which are exaggerated?

On an unrelated note I hope Leri is okay with her Enderman friend, I can't shake the feeling that for her the troubles have just started.

Henri Lemark


	19. Chapter 19 (Brighteyes and Orphans)

Year XXXX April 26

Orphans

I know I have spoken about Endermen forming pairs and that a surviving parent may remarry while still caring for the current child but this past week I've had to think about my views on Endermen once again. I never thought of Enderchildren as being orphans because of how clans work but like many things in this world, anything is possible.

Six days ago, the clan was slightly agitated and everyone had a touch of red in their eyes, I wouldn't know until the next day that the clan had smelt smoke and it had bothered them greatly. With a night of foraging lost, everyone rushed out to make up for the lean pickings the night before and surged into the forest like wolves to find something they could sink their teeth into.

They were so focused on filling their bellies that they hadn't immediately noticed the newcomer who had more or less been surrounded by the clan until the cry of an unknown child brought them all to a halt and the newcomers were the sudden focus of Effars attention. The child whimpered in the silence that followed and her escort fidgeted; it's no wonder when the clan's inner circles had been breached.

The Enderchild was too young to be away from her parents (yes I have finally gotten to the point where I can tell gender on sight now) and she was clinging to a youngish male, he had eyes that were different colors. I know with humans and wolves this is possible, the condition is called Heterochroma, but I have yet to see it in Endermen. Given that they have eye colors that are very different from human colors, I wasn't quite surprised by a yellow-gold eye and a solid purple one. He was also taller than most of the clan except for Underbite and Effar but a lot leaner than either of the two clan males.

He seemed nervous and spoke the Enderman language, which I am better at understanding than I can speak; Sven helps me when I'm at a loss. The girl was found last night under a pile of logs and leaves after a wild fire had torn through the forest her clan had been traveling through. Humans had set the trees on fire and killed any Enderman that had survived the fire with diamond swords, just so that the Pearls of ther lives could be collected. I remembered the clan's unease and the smell of the smoke; we had barely missed a massacre and becoming casualties. All so that humans can use the Pearls, however we can.

According to the youth, the pearls are valuable to hunting humans who in turn sell them to other humans so they can get to The End to hunt the dragons. The slain dragon's life force is spent making a portal to this world in their nest and the egg they had been caring for is left in the open. The dragon's eggs are even more valuable than Ender Pearls. This kind of senseless violence toward creatures as intelligent as we are is beginning to make me sick, I can't be alone in wanting to protect these visitors can I?

The plight of the orphan overrode whatever caution the clan females might have had about the young Enderman in their midst and they approached cautiously to get a look at the little girl. Everyone idled and Tiny ran up to the newcomer and started talking while Adone held her son back. Sven really did try to get away, even going so far as to teleport out of his mothers' arms but she followed and hauled him back to his father who did keep the boy from getting away.

Sasha and Zephram seemed very interested in the waif and I thought for sure that they would be the ones to take the poor child in. In the end, an older couple that has not had any kids since I joined this clan took the orphan under their care and the night was spent hunting mushrooms and seeing if there were any pearls left in the burned sections of the forest.

The newcomer left the way he came from and through the scorched trees I could have sworn I saw him walking to a nice looking house, fires hadn't come close to the house so the person that lived there must have been ready with a bucket to protect his property. I wanted to run over and see what he was doing but the younger kids were swarming Kefka at that time and trying to get the newly adopted Enderchild to come see the clans pet.

Kefka was ready to make another friend and was on her best behavior especially when Nanka (I have neglected mentioning her because I see her so rarely. I think she might be partially blind) handed her adopted clan mate a bit of cooked steak. The youngster timidly held the food out after the others urged her to and even used some of my bread (how did they get it?) to demonstrate how to feed the tamed wolf. Once again, it became fashionable to be seen feeding the wolf and at some point the four month old climbed on Keffy and was riding her like a pig, minus the use of a saddle.

I will have to ask Sven what her name is later when Effar finally lets him go, with those long arms and legs flailing about Sven looks a bit like a squid. I hope this new addition adjusts to her new family group and that she's young enough to forget what happened to her old family. Since she joined us, she has taking a liking to riding Kefka, has taught herself how to hang on with her knees and hands without causing harm, and seems to be adjusting very well.

Hehe, Endersquid...

Henri Lemark


	20. Chapter 20 (Eye Color Revisited)

Year XXXX April 29

Eye Color Revisited

As I have mentioned in one of my previous entries I would touch upon the mixed eye colors of Endermen and its long past time that I do so, especially since Sven's become positively chatty the older he gets. Between him and the other young Endermen that have learned English in this clan I have found myself perched on a wellspring of knowledge into the secret world of Endermen. Now that I can ask for exactly what I want to know and I have earned a bit of trust I'm finally getting reliable information from the source. For those that remember my entry earlier in this study I spoke about the solid eye colors and mentioned that two and three colors are possible, now I can go back and clarify the subject and bring some more light to these creatures and their unusual behaviors.

BI-COLORATION

Red-green - Playful/impish: I have seen this color combination in play fights between young male Endermen of all clan strata when they pull a prank on one another. Given Sven's still growing grasp of English I think impish and mischievous is more appropriate for the behaviors I have seen and let me tell you, young Endermen are excellent pranksters. It seems anyone is fair game. Even Effar, but he is good at catching the pranksters and making them squeal before letting them go.

Purple-red - Protective breeding/family: This color combination is the most dangerous to have pointing your way, especially on a female Enderman. Should you bring a mated Enderman within an inch of their life, their spouse will show up to protect their downed life mate you will have two angry Endermen on your tail. When a child is involved, the color switches to its second meaning and you had best hope you can run the hell away and into a patch of water until morning because they will end you faster than you can blink. In some cases, prospective mates will flash rivals of the same gender to keep them away from a preferred mate so there is a good chance there is more meaning to this color than what adolescents know of.

Blue-pink - Anxiety: The orphan has consistently shown this color and has taken to scratching at herself until she bleeds. Concern and fear appear to be a potent mix and are highly stressful in young individuals like the poor girl the clan has adopted. If she cannot adjust soon I worry for her health as anxiety disorders in humans can have a dramatic effect on overall health and wellness. On a different note, severely wounded Endermen display this color, moan while being tended with pearls also display this color combination, and it is no wonder since they must either heal or die.

TRI-COLORATION

Red-fuchsia-blue - Growing agitation: Red and blue do not mix to become purple which gives the impression of a third color, in this case Fuchsia to symbolize that they are agitated and concerned. I do not know if this is true of all tri-coloration I've seen in Endermen eyes but it does give me something to think about if I try to define their eye color more than I have already.

On a side note, I have finally found the time to ask Sven about the waif and after a lot of patience, I finally have some information about her. Her name is Bina supposedly it is a lucky name to have but after what she has been through, I have to wonder how lucky the girl is. Bina seems most at ease around Kefka, for her part the wolf seems to think of the Enderchild as her cub stays close to her at all times. They're an unusual pair but they both seem happy together so I cannot complain. I do wish she would do normal Ender things, Bina really worries me.

Henri Lemark

I CAN RITE TO.


	21. Chapter 21 (Dragon Egg)

Year XXXX May 7

Well, it is a good thing I look over my notes before writing a new entry; I would have missed Sven's little addition. He wrote with one of my burnt out torches and there is charcoal all over the bottom half of the page but his writing is still legible despite the smearing. I should teach him how to spell if he is going to write more often, just in case there is some future need. I have no idea why Sven would need to write but I have a nagging feeling that he should at least know how before he is fully-grown.

I got to see something special today, two if you count Bina's smile when Kefka brought her a poppy, roots and all. The smile wasn't very big, just a small upward twitch at the corners of her mouth, but it made her foster parents very happy. Then she shook off dirt all the roots and picked the petals off one by one before eating them.

When her new parents saw this they started bringing her flowers to eat since the clans normal, diet doesn't seem to sit with her very well. Bina plucked the petals off three more flowers before she quit and started replanting them. I am no expert with the benefits of native flora but I do know people can eat some rose petals without any worry, perhaps for Endermen it's the same way but there has to be something she'll be willing to eat. If we cannot get her to eat something more substantial I am afraid she'll fade away.

The Endermen have tried all the foods they can come by naturally in the wilds and a few stolen from miners. When a cake was brought, the girl picked the strawberries from the top, ate only those, and chewed meditatively on the seeds of a smashed pumpkin brought to her by Sven. At one point, I even saw her eating the discarded and dried skin of an apple left behind by some wasteful person. What could she be thinking? Almost all the edible things I know of have been tried with her and she has turned her nose up at everything so far.

I would give her some sun dried fruits I have been making recently but she is extremely wary of me even with a pumpkin on, and I really can't blame her for that lack of trust. Humans slaughtered her family, being from the race that traumatized her, Bina would understandably be wary of me. I dearly wish I could help her or that she'd let me help her in some way.

The real treasure I saw today was a Dragons' egg; it was set on a pillar of highly polished iron topped with diamonds, the whole thing was then surrounded with glass panes so you couldn't touch it. Next to the whole ensemble was a sign that read, "Future tame dragon ~Phoenix," and I wondered just how much trouble this Phoenix person had gone through to erect such a valuable monument.

The resources alone must have taken him or her months to assemble, on top that off that, the trials of killing off a dragon of The End must have taken a staggering amount of time and preparations, patience and effort. I have heard a rumor that picking one up is nearly impossible unless you know a few tricks; even then, the egg is liable to become lost once you bring it back.

The Endermen couldn't see the egg through the glass around it but on some level, they were aware of it. The same Enders that can vaguely see me got close to the pedestal and discovered that something was in their way; I think Tiny was more startled by his reflection than by the glass itself. (I should experiment with glass some time to see why they have problems with it) One of them, a member of the mountain clan I've met whose name is Enzi, even took to licking the panes and climbed on top of the display cautiously to the amazement of her fellows. Once Enzi was on top of the structure she looked around and I was forcefully reminded of a spider, if they had half their legs cut off, only two eyes, and able to teleport away when the need arose.

She preened at being the sudden center of attention and chattered noisily at the children. The bravest of them rushed to her and the smartest found handholds to climb the glass to reach Enzi and to gaze upon the egg from above. Everyone watched the youngsters climb all over the monument and it was little Bina that fell through the panes at the very top that caused a commotion. She landed squarely on the purple and black egg and squealed like a stuck pig for a second before manure hit the fan.

The egg vanished like the Endermen but with fewer particles and Bina disappeared with it, everyone was up in arms about her disappearance and the clan scattered like dust in the wind to find her. We did not have a long time to look because an alarm went off moments after the egg left its pedestal. The clan panicked until Sven screamed in pain and wolves started to howl.

Bina and the egg had landed on a small island in the middle of a nearby pond and Sven had tried to hop on lily pads to get to her. The clan kreeled in uncertainty, the island she had landed on was barely big enough for the egg and no one looked eager to trust the broad leaves of a water lily to hold their weight after Sven's near soaking.

I took it upon myself to swim to the island with a wolf at my side, I had hoped to make a small path for her to walk on made of sand but she had other ideas. Bina jumped on my shoulders once I had gotten close enough for her to latch on to and absolutely refused to be pried off. I have never noticed it before but she has short claws because she has been chewing on them, not because she is malnourished, as I had previously thought.

By some miracle, I made it back to the water's edge without her touching the water and her foster parents snatched her, and incidentally me since she was not letting go, up and ran as if dogs were on their heels. This was not far from the truth since a woman with fiery hair crashed through the underbrush with a small pack of wolves at her command, a bow in hand, and a sword with fire dancing along the blade at her hip. I would bet a month's wages that she was the Phoenix that wrote the sign.

If there was a predetermined place to run to, it was lost on me while I was dragged through the landscape by Bina and the older couple that takes care of her. The sky was starting to turn pinkish to the east when everyone finally slowed down and teleported into a surface ravine so deep that it intersected an abandoned mineshaft. The whole clan collapsed in the sheltering darkness those tunnels provided and panted themselves to sleep.

I'm too tired to get the apples I dropped before I was hauled into the mineshaft, I'll get them tomorrow when the moon rises and I hope to god Kefka doesn't try to get down here on her own, she would probably fall to her death if she tried.

Henri Lemark


	22. Chapter 22 (Apples are Food)

Year XXXX May 8

Working notes - A safe way to eat fruit?

Woke up this evening to a wolf in my face, I'm at a loss about how Kefka made it down here alright but all the same I'm happy to see her after yesterdays hair raising chase. She had scrapes on all her paws, her fur was matted with mud, she whimpered loudly in my ears until I fished out some rotten flesh I hold onto for just this kind of emergency. Now her tails mostly up and she nudges at the hands of Endermen who feed her regularly for more tidbits since I didn't have anything else for her.

Everyone was starving so we headed out as soon as Effar ambled to the shaft opening and stepped on the apples I had dropped last night, he was more than a little surprised to have something break under his foot and balanced on one leg to see what he had stepped in. The apple chunks were dry enough not to cause any damage and the clan leader used a stone to get the stuff from between his toes. Looking at his face, you would have thought Effar had stepped in cow dung.

When Binas' parents came out the unpleasant encounter with crushed and dried apples was well known so they swung wide while their daughter stopped and stared at the exposed flesh the fruit. I thought she was going to cry and cling to her new mom but instead she dove at the pile of dried fruit and ate it quickly like she was starving, likely she was she really hasn't eaten enough and her growth is really stunted.

Dren (her new father) and M'knet (her new mother) watched in amazement and awe to see their young charge eating heartily for once. Bina growled at them when they got too close to the stray bits of apple and shoveled them into her mouth before she would let them pick her up. The adults were amused by her display and I think there was some good-natured humor at the girls' expense circling as we climbed out of the ravine.

I think they got the scent of what she ate or perhaps one of the Enders knew enough about apples to identify the squashed remnants of one because Dren and M'knet broke many branches to find the round red fruits as we passed through a forest similar to the one where the soft-spoken stranger discovered Bina.

Bina watched with great interest from her perch on Keffy's back; but she didn't try to take an apple from them until we camped in a narrow ravine with a low hanging dirt roof and I helped the Enderman of my 'rank' to block as much light as possible without restricting airflow. While the sky lightened Bina managed to get a few of the apples that had been found and rolled them to the narrowed opening with care since even her short claws can pierce the waxy flesh of the fruit and get her wet.

I watched as she picked up a big rock and threw it repeatedly at the apples, many times she missed entirely or hit them enough to make them roll away but she kept trying until all four apples were smashed and in the strengthening sunlight. It is a completely new behavior and one I have never witnessed before from any of the clans I've met.

Bina must have learned about this from her birth parents and from her aunts and cousins the same way human children learn things. By watching those around you, you learn how to behave, how to dress, and how to talk. She brings with her the socially learned knowledge of it such as how to break apples without touching them, and how eat them safely. I don't know if this clan will embrace the new food source but it seems to me that her parents will do anything to keep her from dying under their care.

Since she is now in a clan that has never tried to eat the flesh of a fruit she must have been disturbed to the change in diet. It seems my accident with my satchel and Effars' careless footsteps may have been all the encouragement needed to practice what she learned before the fire. I am very glad she seems to know what to do with apples; I was tempted to leave out my apple chips to see if she would eat those.

I've neglected Sven's injuries from trying to save the adopted Enderchild so I will remedy that oversight now, He got soaked from elbows and knees to his hands and feet. Typically, Endermen his age are nearly independent and can, if they choose, explore their place in the clan and venture out with the gatherers and are consequently too old to be carried. Perhaps because of his status, an uncle carried Sven for the night. I hope we come across gypsies soon; their Enderman medicine would be helpful about now to aid in his recovery.

Henri Lemark


	23. Chapter 23 (Water Tolerance)

Year XXXX May 24

Working notes - Water tolerance

I assumed since the clans I've shadowed avoid water at all costs that they would refuse to eat fruit even when offered some but like many things in nature, you will be amazed if you stop and watch it in action for a while. Bina eats various dried fruits with delight, minus watermelons since we haven't come across any, and has fleshed out beautifully. She is particularly fond of apples and beats pods on jungle trees to get cocoa beans from them, which she promptly eats like candy.

Her parents were slow to pick up her trick to smash fruit open so they can dry in the sun and had many mishaps with bashing their own hands or being splashed by the sugary juices but they have finally become as proficient as she is. The eldest female watched as well as she was able before speaking to the small family for the first time. Bina stayed quiet and offered a bit of dried pumpkin to the elder, which the matron took solemnly and spent the rest of the day chewing on.

Seeing this I believe that Endermen do actually have a tolerance to water that I have overlooked for the most part because it is just something I have grown use to. Our atmosphere always has water in it. If it were contact with water period then Enderman would constantly suffer injury and would burn from the inside whenever they ate.

There's something about rain and bodies of water that harm them which will require more study than I can perhaps do since Endermen would have to be studied in a more controlled setting. This presents some challenges since they can vanish on you and do serious damage if they choose not to cooperate.

What I can hypothesize about is that they do in fact NEED water, which is provided by their diet. Humans are about 70% water so we have to drink water independently of food and must drink perhaps half a gallon a day to keep our body processes running properly. The ratio for Endermen is unknown but seeing this young, fruit eating, Enderchild revitalized and active as she should be argues a case about their need for the life giving liquid.

Perhaps the leanness of Enderman is related to their inability to process large amounts of water. Though they eat as much as I do, they do not put on much in the way of muscle or fat so most of the energy they consume must go to their abilities or be fueling an incredibly high metabolism. Notch knows that teleporting thing they do can't come cheaply or their toddlers could do it as soon as they learn how to chew on mushrooms by themselves.

My thought on these creatures' ability or willingness to eat fruit is that it probably can't have much water in it or they may suffer digestive maladies. Dried seeds would be safe and dried fruit strips would be okay as long as they don't mind a crunchy or chewy addition to their diets. I do not believe they will ever eat watermelons as it almost entirely water; At most, they could eat the rind since that is relatively dry and tough.

Henri Lemark


	24. Chapter 24 (Thowan and Attack)

Year XXXX May 24

Something terrible happened while the clan crossed a desert. We saw another group of Endermen toying with a villager who was locked out of his house. The village was too small to have its own iron golem so the best the villagers could do is bar their doors and hope that they survived the night. This other clan took their time killing the poor man, first tearing at his clothes until they were rags then they scored him deeply with their claws while spinning him in their circle. That nameless person died screaming in the tatters of their white robes while their village mates watched in horror through lit windows.

Effar watched warily and lead everyone around a bend of the river the village was on to give the violent band of rogue males and few females a wide berth. It seemed to me that he was bothered by the other clan's cold-blooded murder of a human, or perhaps by the rival clans' behavior. That other clan was as large as ours was and had no young children in it but it did have plenty of juveniles almost big enough to strike out on their own.

I had always wondered if Endermen could really see me with a pumpkin on and at the beginning of this expedition, I made sure to wear black so I could be mistaken for a pygmy Enderman. Those clothes have faded to charcoal, I wear other things and dye them black when I get the chance but that made no difference for what happened next. Coincidence or not there is no mistaking that those other Endermen knew I was human, those red eyes waved over and around me as they darted after us.

The other clan aggressively stalked us, immediately the kids huddled to the center with their mothers. Adone, her daughter and son-in-law took positions around those too young or old to fight while the opponents circled us. We had almost made it to pine forest they started attacking.

Effar, Underbite and all the able males met them fiercely and the first struggles were bloodless, until one of those rouges teleported into the center of the kids to grab me and warp out. I felt the pain of being moved around so it is definitely on the whim of the Endermen if you will suffer or not when it carries you along.

My clan was outraged and howled madly, more from the fact that the kids were threatened than by my abduction. Sven threw himself at the attackers and was promptly kicked into the sand, he is too young to hold his own against the adolescents but you have to give the boy points for effort. That is the last I saw him for a while because the Enderman that had me swung me through the air like a club so hard I felt like my arm was going to be ripped out of its socket.

Kefka tried her best to save me but she was kicked around, I thought her nearly dead when an odd wolf charged from the trees with dyed fur to defend her. All the while, I worked to get my knife and I stabbed my captor in the hand only to be flung into a tree with such force that I cracked its bark and smashed my pumpkin helmet wide open.

Thankfully, they couldn't reach through the branches to get me before I had moved out of their way and the outsiders' flinched away from the pine trees needle like leaves. Despite their long limbs Endermen really are not built to climb trees as humans can. Aside from jungle trees and unusually large oak trees there isn't any tree they can climb that they can't also teleport onto, only kids can get into them because their smaller bodies can fit easily between the branches.

It bought me enough time to get out an enchanted bow I got from killing a skeleton and I began firing at any unknown Enderman that tried to get me out of the tree. Their pained screams grated at my nerves and a part of me wanted to beg forgiveness but I had seen their deeds. If I let then grab me a second time they would kill me just like that villager with the large nose. At some point Sven joined me, poked at those strangers with a stone sword, and screamed profanities at them.

When the dust cleared, there were several dead Endermen from both clans. Their respective families collected their pearls and Effar hounded the rival leader until he took refuge in the snowy forest. The rouge clan ran quickly and whistled in pain when they lingered in the snow just long enough to melt it. Our clan retreated to a ravine and climbed down, passed a monster spawner and finally took refuge in a dead end cave before everyone who'd been hurt was laid down to be healed.

I had to tell Kefka to stay aboveground with the wild wolf with its blue and white fur until I returned and already I miss her companionship. Enderman are wonderful people but they simply do not have the same qualities as a tamed wolf. I trust she will survive, I saw the wild wolf bring Kef a freshly killed chicken and offer it with a nudge of his nose. That blue and white fur speaks of contact with humans but its mannerisms say otherwise. Perhaps Kefka is in heat and he was just paving the way for breeding. I hope not, I do not look forward to keeping an eye on wolf pups and Enderchildren.

I quietly suffered the Endermen equivalent of first aid and let their odd pearls run along my cuts, I don't know what they were expecting but it didn't have the same effect as when it is used on Endermen. I resigned myself to shredding some clothes to make bandages when Bina walked up timidly with one eye swollen shut and the tattered robe of the villager in her arms. She is a good girl, and she tried to help as I wrapped the cloth around myself to stop the bleeding. I wish I had seen her clan before they were murdered, so many talents that humans like to think only they have are shared by Enders and Bina in particular shows that bright spark of ingenuity in her eyes.

Now I'm patched up, bruised and hungry. I hesitate to eat the zombie meat I have on hand but with my weapons missing, I can't get safer meat to eat much less cook it since that clan tore my knapsack open. Perhaps that's how Sven got my sword in the first place; he even knew a few of the basic slashes, probably from watching me but it was quite the sight to see the young lad defending his friend. Right now, he has my bow and is plucking at the string, hope he doesn't break it; I enjoy the effects of its meager enchantment.

I was able to catch some of what I heard during the fight but I still can't make much sense of it. Perhaps later, when my body is healed as well as my spirit I can put this all together coherently. All I can think of now is that those Enders are clinging to some thread of insanity and trying to find truth in a child's tale. I will have to ask Sven or some of the others I've taught English to about this, until then I will write it while it's fresh:

'Lovers of man you foul our blood', 'Cleans the world of the sun walkers', 'Dragon thieves, they will be our end', 'Though they are weak, Humans hold the key of the goddess', 'The imperfect and weak will be struck from our kind', "For the goddess we cleanse the land'.

Henri Lemark

A/N: As some of you may have noticed, the chapters are getting names to them now, this marks my progress in the updates as of Minecraft 1.7.10. Progress on updating the chapters is going well and I have content laid out for several more chapters such as how Enderman fighting styles differ from Humans, More about the End, Endermites, and of course Henri's little problem :D

Though I am behind, I am still accepting More requests for Cameos in the story though i must ask that only creatures that can easily be inserted into the Minecraft world be submitted, Some exceptions are allowed so please PM me.


	25. Chapter 25 (Moon Temple Quest)

Year XXXX May 30

Tales of the Far Land

Three days after escaping that band of violent rogues, we emerged from the ravine in the waning light of the evening and I was startled when the younger Endermen ventured onto the surface without a care for the faint sunlight. I had thought Endermen could not stand the sun for whatever reason and have seen them suffer terrible burns from careless exposure. I am missing something and I'm going to figure it out, Notch help me I can't stand not knowing.

Kefka happily greeted her pack mates and Sasha swept the wolf off the ground in a hug, Keffy was well behaved and panted happily but she did squirm to get all four feet back on the ground. The dyed wolf is gone which I have mixed feelings about and it appears we missed a storm while taking refuge. Fresh snow coated the pine forest and chickens were huddling under the trees for warmth. Kefka and I took advantage of the bounty and bagged as many fowl as we could while I reclaimed much of my lost items. I will need a new sack but for now I will use a strange chest I found, it seems it's crafted with obsidian and something else with an Eye of Ender on the front.

We skirted the pine forest warily on our way to a distant mountain range when the Enders started to become agitated. There were Zombie Pigmen roaming the sands in their packs and one even wore a gold helmet, I was tempted to shoot that one but caution said otherwise. If I had attacked, those undead pig creatures would attack and they'd plow through the clan on their way to me.

Everyone was on edge and for good reason; there was evidence of a large fight. Pearls littered the landscape and stragglers of those departed beings drifted toward us with hallow eyes. They looked terrible with countless injuries one even had dislocated her shoulder and she grunted in pain when moving. Had that rival clan done this?

The night was spent tending these hapless souls and I dearly missed wearing a pumpkin, I am so use to looking directly at Endermen. More than once, I found myself on the verge of making them look back at me with red eyes and I tore my gaze away with effort. Until I can replace the lost helmet, I have to be quite aware of what I'm looking at.

Moreover, I have heard another Ender story, this one isn't at all pleasant and it came from one of the refugees we have assisted. I know the Endermen are looking for something and I've brushed the quest for their deity aside as a religious pilgrimage but perhaps it is more than that.

The storyteller caught my eye; he has blue tinted purple eyes, a burn on his left arm from an accident with water judging by the shape, and a small slime as a pet. After seeing Bina adopt a gentle silverfish, I wasn't as surprised by the slime as I might have been but I did have to look twice to make sure it was a slime and not the smallest Creeper in the world.

This particular Ender is about an inch taller than the rest of the clan, which puts him in a socially awkward place since he's taller than Effar but he doesn't seem to be a threat. He strikes me as a third tier Ender by his actions and general lack of aggression. In fact he seems a bit interested in my new chest, don't know why but I'm not going to let him pick through it.

Before I get too lost in the state of the miscellaneous stragglers, we have adopted into the group I simply must get this troubling story written.

~-/^\-~

The Lady of the Moon hadn't succeeded in sending away all Enderman to their pocket dimension and those that were left behind fled to the deeper parts of dungeons to live their lives as fugitives and refugees. Those that stayed by the Lunar Temple watched in horror as Notch worked his magic to destroy their only site of worship.

His first attempts to wipe the land clean failed to work and the God of Man howled his rage at the skies, which turned gray and dumped water on the land. He tried to bury the temple under lava and found that his efforts were converted almost immediately to obsidian with little damage to the structures. He worked with Jeb and they set TNT about the temple and laid the more delicate structures to ruin.

Nevertheless, the building of worship still stood proudly in the scarred landscape.

In unholy rage, Notch damned Herobrine thoroughly and scorched the lands around the temple for seven days and seven nights before he struck upon an idea to accomplish his goal if in a different way than he intended. He and Jeb left the world for a time to mull over the problem over; when they returned Notch was in a better mood.

Instead of obliterating the temple, which was regenerating from the blast damage, they created a strange land to obscure it entirely. Deep tunnels with cavernous mouths formed from the sky to the deepest bedrock, no light penetrated and something about the caves made time slow. After the caves were created monsters spawned in the caves, time slowed even more, and it affected anything that was dropped on the ground. Even ones movements became jerky and slow, including the two gods.

Notch looked at the lands Endermen had occupied exclusively and repeated the process of creation. When he was finished, the edges of his world were the oddest landscapes of all with patches of it looking like stacked land hovering in the air like monstrous pancakes. The refugees were forced to leave the borderlands before time slowed them so much that escape would be imposable but not before a few brave warriors ventured into the Far Lands to see if the temple was intact.

It was there, in its glory of glass, stone and metal, the Temple of the Moon stood as it had before Notches anger had forced it into obscurity.

The Endermen fled and dug strongholds into the earth and scratched their last words into the cracked stone walls. "The temple is there and the God of Man has sealed it, to find it the key of the Goddess is needed."

~-/^\-~

Now some of that violent clans ranting make a bit of sense, whatever this key of the goddess is some Enders believe humans have it.

What scares me is that when Endermen were seen walking the lands, the Far Lands changed dramatically from its caves and stacks to something flat and indistinguishable from the natural land it was next to. Notch is aware of the Enders and their quest and is actively trying to thwart their efforts. 

Henri Lemark

This chapters Cameo cme fomr Deviant art adn the lovely fafnyrgoldenwings!


	26. Chapter 26 (Firebreathing)

Year XXXX June 3

Fire breathing is not just for dragons.

The stragglers we were helping have sorted themselves out either by joining us, becoming their own clan or striking out singly. The Ender with the slime parted ways and struck out on his own and I wish him the best on his journeys from settlements. I found out what he had been itching for in my new chest; cakes. I had quite the collection of them since the ingredients are easy for me to come by. The lanky devil didn't even look ashamed when I caught him elbows deep in my stash.

The brush with those remnants of clans shook Effar and struck fear in the hearts of the rest of my clan. Everywhere I look I see blue tinted eyes and in only the very youngest, a hint of pink. They spoke of a white demon that passed through while they had hid underground and I cannot think of anything that color that would influence Endermen this way unless they are referring to a Ghast.

We passed an area that was brightly lit with torches and stunted trees before I learned this fact and sheep were everywhere so I took out my shears and got enough wool to make into clothing and bandages plus some extra to sell at the next village we come across. Ever since his dunking Sven's had burn scars that won't heal properly so I've tried to recreate that gypsy medicine without success so I taught him how to cover the seeping wounds with bandages.

Mob hunters erupted from the ground and the clans' casualties were high in those first moments, they even managed to knock Underbite down to the point where he wasn't teleporting away. Those that were not injured or disabled in that first wave had to deal with a new invention that was pulled out of the hunters packs and I was at a loss about their purpose. It looked like a bow mounted on a stick and it fired arrows without you having to pull on the string.

They looked at the Endermen they were attacking and fired their arrows without looking away and the clan fled away from the onslaught as quickly as we could. Traditional arrows weren't the only things those odd bows could fire and the hunters weren't going to let the Endermen get away. A pair of them rushed me and bowled me over before I could react and send Kefka on any of them, not that I would have she would have been killed without a second thought.

I watched those men put a different kind of arrow on their bows and was dumbstruck to see them fire nets. Effar howled at the men and swung his arms madly to make them back off until one of those nets pinned his arms at his sides and kept him from tearing free of it. In short order these people rounded up a large chunk of the clan on those nets and were loading them into carts.

Sven was in a net with Tiny's adopted father and Bina as these brutal men started hauling their catch across the ground. The mob hunters wisely did not hit Sven while he struggled to get free but they did pull the net tighter to make moving difficult. He wiggled desperately and belched next to one of the torches; I had the joy of seeing a plume of fire touch one of their carts before the brutes that had me pulled aside and threw a bag over my head.

I heard the men fighting and screaming and the heat of fire before light returned to my world, a spider jockey rushed past me on its way to the mob hunters and its eight-legged steed tore the rough cloth off as it passed. Sven was holding a torch to his face and belching fire at any human he saw, Tiny's father was tearing the wagons open with his claws and Bina was running around with a double handful of sand that she used to blind any human that got too close.

When the spider jockey joined the fray, the tides turned in favor of the mobs but the hunters put up a fight land tried to get away with their captives. Their arrows drove us back and Sven belched at the trailing cart for all he was worth, and hit nothing. Whatever allowed him to pull that trick off couldn't sustain the last gout of flame and he fell terribly short of his mark.

The boy was dejected as the carts rolled away when one of the ones in the middle simply exploded for the inside, I heard shouting and screaming and for a moment, I felt positively evil to congratulate the powers that primed the TNT they ran into. These people were doing their jobs even as I was and wishing for their death was wrong.

We checked the craters for survivors and I saw something that shocked me to the core. Not far from where the caravan had been stopped by fate was another trap, one I have heard rumors about that is commonly used by the Herobrine. These people had run afoul of a simple TNT trap and it was cunningly placed to hide it's location until you stumble upon it and by then it's too late to escape unscathed.

Food is getting scarce again and it is fortunate that Bina's caregivers learned how to prepare normally inedible foods because that is all we have now. Along with the cakes I had in that odd chest, I also had a collection of fruits that I pulled out and handed over and/or prepared along with watermelons. For the most part even Bina avoided dried watermelon and I don't blame her, it's nowhere as tasty and it is spongy in texture.

I found Sven eating it though and I have an estimate about his noxious breath as of late. He has aquired a taste for the melons and is careful when handling them so he doesn't burn himself; he looks like a proper English gentleman dipping a biscuit in his tea while he eats it. Since he's the only one eating the dried melons it's easy to figure out a minor mystery that had plagued the clan, why was Sven's breath noxious so suddenly? Happy accident that his diet allowed nearly everyone to escape but I am bothered by the why behind this non-lethal mob hunter attack.

Henri Lemark

A/N: Yes this is the rest of the cameo for fafnyrgoldenwings their cake stealing Endermen had to be given the chance~!


	27. Chapter 27 (Nether Species Association)

Year XXXX June 13

Cross species association-Nether hostiles

It is imposable to ignore it anymore, the world is changing and creatures from that hellish place are showing up more every day. Evidence of Herobrine is also becoming harder to ignore with his TNT traps and random buildings placed here and there that trap you inside them. There is even lava appearing more often on the surface and structures that could be manmade if they did not spell out his name, Herobrine is making himself known.

With him are the monsters that thrive in that fiery place, I know them all to well but there are some I've NEVER seen before like Magma Cubes and Blazes to name a few. I had to send Kefka to a village half a day's travel from the stronghold we are stopping at with a note attached to her collar and a bag of emeralds to get some books on the new things in the world since I have been detached for a year. She came back with several texts I have taken the time to read and I shudder at what might happen given what has already happened.

Most of this is speculation on my part because I haven't seen half of the creatures mentioned but I will do my best to predict their interactions to Endermen and vice versa. I hope not to get confirmation; I foresee many pearls if that happens.

Interactions with Nether Creatures.

-Blazes: After the brush with the mob hunters I have actually started to see these on the surface, they roam wildly moaning metallicly and no matter what I wear, they see attack and me. Out in the open the clan and I have no problem dealing with them but this book says they are deadly in enclosed spaces when you are caught with only a sword. I fended them off as well as I could with my bow but they move faster than I can aim, Enderman have an easier time of it, they threw large chunks of stone at the Blazes. It was very effective and I have several blaze rods thanks to their coordinated efforts.

-Zombie Pigmen: I should have known in the desert when we'd seen these zombies that something was up but I thought nothing of it because they can be created in the Overworld when lightning strikes a pig. I have commented on these before but I've had to revise my statement; Endermen do not bother Zombie Pigmen as long as these zombies keep their distance. They will be attacked if they get too close and torn to pieces.

-Wither Skeleton: I have not heard of these at all but according to my reading, they are skeletons of the Nether and their charred bones rattle around the fortresses. In addition, they are taller than I am so wherever an Enderman could go without teleporting past a barrier, these fire resistant skeletons could go as well. The information on their 'wither' effect once they attack someone is bothersome since Endermen do not have long-range attacks they would suffer slowly while they are afflicted. It would be wise for them to learn to give these scorched skeletons a wide birth or to throw stones at them as they do with Blazes.

-Withers: These terrify me more than any hostile mob I have heard of and that does not include Ender dragons, which I have yet to see. They will attack almost anything including Endermen and like the Wither Skeletons, they will inflict a lingering effect on others that heal this monstrous creature, and they fly like blazes! Moreover, between their flying and ability to spit fire like a Ghast I do not think any Enderman would stand a chance. The only redeeming feature is that these things don't spawn naturally anywhere; they must be crafted much like an Iron Golem. I sense Herobrine is involved with this.

-Magma Cube: Endermen cast as much attention to these fiery Slimes as they do with normal slimes, in fact they seem very interested in the red slimes and pick them up frequently and carry them around before setting them back down. The fire slimes take it well and hop along as if nothing happened.

Interactions with new Overworld Creatures.

-Witch: Witches live in Swamps mostly but they do travel a great distance in search of potion ingredients they need. With their resemblance to villagers, I would think Enders would not attack unless one of them threw a potion at an Ender or said witch looks at an Enderman. If these two were to fight, I think there would be a stalemate between the witches arsenal and Endermen teleportation once harmed.

-Zombie Villagers: I think Endermen would react to these poor fellows the same way they do to regular zombies, by ignoring them.

-Bats: I have seen these in some of the caves the clan occupies and have not given them much thought since they are active around the time the clan leaves for the night. I think an Enderman could keep one, as a pet the way Slimes and Silverfish have been but Notch only knows what good that would do them.

-Iron Golem: Endermen do not seem to know what these are or the danger they represent until it charges and by then it is too late to avoid combat. These village defenders hit hard but not particularly fast so, it is possible for several Enders take out one Iron Golem with heavy losses of their own.

-Snow Golem: These pose a lesser threat than Iron golems but the snowballs they throw are a problem. These snowmen lack intelligence and attack anything in range and are promptly killed as long as the one that made them is not nearby to protect it. I have learned not to feel regret when I take these out with arrows and I have come to terms with asking these golems creators to send my journals to the Council.

I cannot believe it has been over a year since I've joined Effars' clan and was made a part of it by Sasha. So much has happened! Sasha has a kid of her own, I was not able to watch how the pearl was made but I fully intend to witness it someday. Sven looks at his niece and tries not to let her latch on but she's every bit an escape artist as her young uncle and she always gets his legs at the very least and begs him to teach her how to talk with me.

She is very cute and active and has had her eye color for about a week, her name is Knell, and she is as sweet and innocent as any child you could hope to meet. If I could have a daughter, I would hope she is like this Endergirl. Of course, I have seen so many winters I don't think I will know that joy, the best I have is to watch others and bask in what I see.

Henri Lemark


	28. Chapter 28 (Sven Writes)

Year XXXX June 18

Henri's finally letting me use his paper to write on, he's even let me use his book if I tell it some things about us that he can't find out on his own. I asked Mom and she couldn't think of anything special, I asked Sasha and she's more interested in Knell than anything so she wasn't any help. I would have asked Dad but he thinks writing is silly. I try to write like humans even if the rules are strange and not at all clear because that is how they keep what they know. Writing small enough to fit this page is hard!

Knell gave me an idea to write about; she asked why she could not really tell where Henri is even though she can hear him and see his wolf. I had to ask the grownups and they did not know so I asked all the old Enderfolk who knew those that had come from The End. All I got were stories about that place and nothing I really wanted. Then I had an idea, Henri explained once how he tried to figure us out so I thought I could do that with Knell's question.

Grandma Tvers told me once that the human demon Herobrine had made us and that our goddess had sent us away to be safe from the Almighty Notch. Henri says humans have gone there and that it is another dimension (that is a hard word) so I think the reason we cannot see humans well is because we are from There instead of Here. I only know about Here, the Overworld as Henri puts it, There seems dull with pale stone and obsidian. I see it in my dreams sometimes, it is comfortably dark and everyone looks just like me.

Gradma said when we teleport we take a quarter step into The End and go a short distance before we return to the Overworld but we're never all the way There or Here, that's why there's purple sparkles around us when we move, it's us stepping out of this world enough to avoid being caught. Whenever a smart creature looks at us, we are pulled into their reality and are forced to stay there until they stop anchoring us; that is why we kill humans, to be free. I have noticed it, whenever Henri looks at me a certain way without a pumpkin on, I feel heavier. I do not get mad but I feel better when it has been a few days since he has done it.

When we are Anchored we can see humans very clearly, maybe that's why it's harder to pick some things up, humans anchor them somehow so we can't pick up things close to where a lot of them live. And why Henri sometimes gets hurt when I carry him to a place he can't get to, he is anchored to the Overworld so much he can't let go of it long enough to move quickly. I still do not know why we cannot really see him, maybe it has something to do with being partially out of the Overworld but he looks a bit fuzzy and unreal.

When I was Knells size I tried to teleport with my eyes closed because there's things in that other place between worlds that look at me all mean like and they try to dig into my skin. I do not like them much at all and now I try to squish them as soon as I see one. They might hurt Knell since she's so small and she likes hanging onto me when i teleport. She is silly to want to see those little parasites, they are not nice at all.

Oh no, I finished his book even writing the smallest I could.

Sven


	29. Chapter 29 (Stargrain)

Year XXXX June 20

Nothing has changed with the clan. Sven's wounds finally scarred over but he keeps wearing the bandages to cover them and he will not tell me why. Ever since I let Sven finish a book for me, I've been thinking about how to test my theory on pumpkins given this new knowledge. Endermen can see us apparently but they have a hard time knowing if we are there thanks to pumpkins but, in the case of Sven, they can choose not to attack.

I took it upon myself to strike out on my own one night as we passed a village so big it might as well have been a city. From where I was perched in a tree (long story) I could see a truly massive church, a library bigger than any I have seen, and some kind of beacon, an apothecary, and a university. When I told Sven about it, he and Tiny had insisted on coming with me. My first thought was to keep them with their families but without an Enderman on hand; there is no reasonable way to find Effar again.

Therefore, I find myself here the City of Old Stargrain renting a room for a week with plenty of food to eat, people to talk to, books to read, and an Enderman sprawled to at the foot of my bed. There is an Iron golem or three here that patrol but on the third floor, my two Endermen friends are safe. I am still on an Ender schedule of sleeping during the day and being active at night, which suits me perfectly since the tasks I had to complete are awkward.

I spent my first day in Stargrain gathering ingredients for potions and supplies for my return to the clan. The second and third days blurred as I poured over books on herbology and botany to learn all I could about pumpkins. The fourth and fifth day I made potions to strip a pumpkin down to its parts to see if I could identify one or a handful of things about the squash that keeps humans from anchoring and was thankful to have Tiny with me. That, along with a villager with an odd talent to keep Endermen from getting mad no matter how long she looks at them proved invaluable to my limited research.

The rest of the week, I tested everything I separated out of those pumpkins and combined them into powders, pastes and elixirs to see if I can get the same effect as a pumpkin to no avail. Both Tiny and Sven felt provoked by my gaze and only calmed when I used a potion of Invisibility or when Sonya distracted them with a large sweet ball she gives her young patients for behaving in her office. I must learn how to make these useful potions but getting ingredients for them will be hard, regardless I found it necessary to purchase a brewing stand of my own so I can brew on the go..

I must note that I'm not trained in this line of work, but I submitted a package containing all my work to date to the Council so their trained alchemists can work out the reason pumpkins halts the aggressive tendencies of Endermen. My limited research has lead me to the conclusion that it isn't the pumpkin itself that keeps them passive but an effect it has that requires further testing.

I will have to see if there is any way I can identify what Endermen call Anchoring because I have noticed anomalies. Some items I've seen Endermen pick up when they first immigrated to this world are untouchable to new arrivals, yet the second generations of these specially empowered Enders are capable of picking up almost any kind of block even if they are the same age as a less capable peer. I have not noticed those in Effars' clan losing the ability to pick up what they have always carried but every time we pick up some stragglers, they seem amazed to see what they consider an 'untouchable' block being carried around with ease.

I think Bina might be one of the Enders that are limited in what they can pick up, she has only picked up natural blocks and manufactured ones fall to the ground the moment she tries to pick them up. It is an interesting effect but unnerving at the same time, cobblestone really shouldn't behave like gravel.

Henri Lemark


	30. Chapter 30 (Theo - Romero Returns)

Year XXXX June 24

With my work sent off to better alchemy labs and my own limited skills exhausted, I am traveling with Sven and Tiny across the land to return to Effar and his clan. They take it in turns holding onto Kefka and myself while the other vanishes for two to three hours at a time while our carrier teleports ahead to cover ground rapidly. When it is time to switch, Kefka and I are handed off and our previous carrier departs to eat and recover and we teleport ahead so the cycle continues. They have been staying out and pushing their luck as the sun rises, neither has been burned as such but their skin seems tender, as if they had sunburns.

Which lead me to a meeting I never expected and it scared the ever living out of me until the potion wore off. Sven and Tiny were out cold in a greifed cabin that let in more light than I thought Endermen could tolerate when I began hearing something outside. Keffy growled and whined but when I looked out and saw nothing for a moment when an empty suit of beaten up armor ran up with an enchanted sword in the correct position. I flailed for my pack and managed to get tangled in Tiny's legs when the invisibility potion wore off. Would you believe that I knew the parson that appeared inside that armor?

I have to hand it to Romero, he knows how to make an entrance and he sure will not let me forget that I screamed like a woman when he appeared. I changed my trousers and Kefka was assured I wasn't in any danger, all while Sven and Tiny snored loudly. He looked different from what I remember. Aside from the iron sword, he's added some red highlights to his dark hair and has a black bandana around his mouth so he looks a bit like a bandit.

He is still a mob hunter but since our last encounter, he hunts smarter, studies his quarry, and makes sure not to outright kill the neutral monsters that must decide if they will harm people. We shared a meal and talked, it is the first time I spent more than a few minutes with a Hunter and gotten to know them as companion. He still is hunting for the Ender that killed his family and while I personally would not wish harm on any one I must say this young man has quite the drive to see his mission be fulfilled.

That brief time in Old Stargrain made me really miss human contact and over the next few days travel I found myself wondering if I should take a break from my research to see if I can find a woman that shares my passions for these surprisingly gentle creatures that have claimed so much of my time. I daydreamed so thoroughly about finding the right woman that I didn't notice a teenage boy running after Sven and I until the Ender stood very still and started growling. I had to thump Sven hard on the chest to get his attention away from what had drawn his ire. It really works wonders; he looked startled and tried to focus on me so he completely forgot about our guest.

The lad was in his early teens with hair a lighter shade of brown than Romero's hair had been, turquoise eyes that got bluer if you looked at them long enough. He wore blue clothing so he was a little difficult to see in the gray dawn light. Thanks to the moonlight reflecting from his glasses that I could find him so quickly, the kids about as tall as I am and is lanky with his age but there's a fierce intelligence his eyes and absolutely no fear of Endermen. After I distracted the bandaged adolescent carrying me he went back to eyeing Sven's lower legs without making the Ender mad. My first thought was that those glasses of his were special but my research couldn't have reached the capitol city in just four days.

Tiny came back to us at that time both full and satisfied in a swirl of those purple particles and straddled the young man whose name is Theo. Tiny hissed his surprise as the human youth split his face in a grin and Kefka jumped free to tackle the man and licked the blue clad youth silly, it was an unexpected break in the routine but a needed one. In the end, Tiny and Sven were chasing Kefka while the wolf happily dashed around with Theo's pack clenched tightly in her jaws. I had the chance to talk with the brave youngster who approached Endermen without a pumpkin on his head.

Theo has been studying Endermen for seven years and has died several times for his work; I was astonished when he showed me a leather-bound volume of my earliest work. They were corrected and organized by date with precise lettering that effectively used the page without waste unlike my own writing. This citizen scientist has compiled his observations into journals he has kept to himself and published in only a few towns near his home. Theo also told me of the works of a lady scientist whom he has taken inspiration from about how belief may affect Enderfolk.

I'm no expert on such things but I do not see how ones beliefs can affect another creature but I cannot rule it out either. Her writings have lead to a spread in human daring and some amazing results that Theo demonstrated, the ability to look at extremities without angering their owners. When I first began, any glance would set these lanky creatures into frenzy and I had thought that Sven was tolerant of my attention because of constant exposure to me. If this theory on belief shaping interaction holds water, I have great hope that we can live peacefully with Endermen and learn from each other to the benefit of both species.

Henri Lemark

A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, I was working on a digital picture and I let Secret Lives slip to the side while I worked. To make up for making you all wait that long I've decided to turn out a chapter a week for a month! I hope you all can forgive me for neglecting you but I promise you I've read all your comments. Romero makes another appearance at the request of his creator MajorDarkblade and we have a first time cameo with Theo owned by Silver261. I hope I did both characters justice~!


	31. Chapter 31 (Joanna and her Spiders)

Year XXXX June 28

It has been fascinating since Theo departed and my escorts have become bolder with the sun, now they stay out after we've taken shelter. I know what they are doing even if they are not completely aware of it; they're building a tolerance for sunlight by braving it until the discomfort drives them to the safety of our shelter. Already they can tolerate early morning sunlight but after ten or so, they huddle up in the darkest area and avoid exposure like the plague.

For the last few days there was heavy evidence of human tampering with the environment, trees were stripped of their branches higher than a man can reach and the ground was torn up with gaping holes leading underground. I would have suggested going around the area but there isn't any other place to go. I thought we were past the worst of it when I saw trees growing as they should from the dirt when both Tiny and Sven (they were both taking a break from teleporting) howled in surprise as we fell.

The hill we had been climbing terminated abruptly into a strip mine several hundred meters wide and so deep that I couldn't see the bottom. In horror, I watched as we plummeted down the edge of the giant hole until the two Endermen slammed into a low ledge and fell backwards into a cave opening. I am not usually the kind of man to find humor in others pain or discomfort but when I saw Tiny land squarely on a spider with Kefka in his arms I laughed. The stunned expression on the Ender and Spiders faces was priceless as their ten long limbs got tangled together struck me as insanely funny after believing I as going to die just seconds before.

The startled spider squealed and started to throw itself around to get its unwanted riders off while Sven dropped me on the cave floor to help his friend get off the hairy back of the spider and to avoid a bite. Tiny was hauled down the cave before he managed to get off and rolled onto his hands and knees to check his injuries when he came face to mandibles with a pack of cave spiders. Spiders hissed and the Enderman and I truly believed we would have to fight through waves of the hairy arachnids when a woman's voice cut through the tension.

She was not much to look at, pretty in a maidenly way and modestly garbed with black eyes and this woman tossed cave spiders aside with her bare hands to get them away from the Enders and myself. The spiders looked ready to attack the woman but she did something funny with her arms and they backed off. She proceeded to give me a tongue lashing about how not to treat spiders and completely ignored the two Endermen crouched nearby, I think she would have kept at it until I either fell asleep or grew too hungry to pay attention to anything but my stomach. That is until her stomach growled loud enough for me to hear and she stopped mid-word.

Ms. Joanna Gold had the look of one who has been without a good meal for a while so I took advantage of the awkward silence to open my pack and fish out some roasted meat and bottled water to distract her. She ate voraciously and when she had slowed to a more human pace I introduced myself and we talked, her job is much like mine but with spiders. The arachnids are female dominated and she uses her gender and body language to make males heed her directions.

She must have met people underground because while she has admitted to not having seen the sun in a year, yet her social skills are not completely gone. I split my supplies and gave her more than half of what I had so she could keep up her research. Since she is interested in cave spiders, she has less opportunity to get fresh meat than I do and I know I am more than grateful for fresh food on the field. I imagine she has survived by eating rotten flesh. My thoughts are with her and I wish her well on her research.

We parted ways while it was still brighter than the Endermen would brave so we and we were nowhere close to sleep from the almost fatal fall. We explored the caves with Joanna and her spiders for a while until we started seeing a well-developed mining system, I think its called branch mining and it seems very efficient. Sven and Tiny were forced to crouch and crawl through the passageways because it was too short for their full height.

This proved to be unfortunate since these mines were actively occupied. By a device that was beyond my immediate recognition, lights turned on suddenly as we stepped into a massive ravine and a miner ran from one of his mines and charged toward a mine cart.

He looked like anyone else who is more focused in their work than their appearance in this world; bluish shirt and dark blue pants that are ill matched and a beard that needed shaving. This miner had a well-worn pick and he stopped to look at me on the way to his mine cart. Never spoke a word to us but he did look at and around us, it was unnerving to be treated the same as an Enderman and surreal.

We looked at each other for a time and the miner carefully walked to his way out and hit a button to get the cart moving along with two others that had chests in them. We were left alone and I tried to determine what had turned the lights on, it was just redstone lanterns set at the base of the walls and I could find no wiring that connected them to each other. We stayed in the mine until my new clock said it was night and the lanterns turned off, we even found the bottom of that strip mine.

The Enders scratched at the exposed bedrock and tried to catch the void particles that floated up from below. I felt very uneasy down there, as if I was being watched by a malevolent being that wanted very much to hurt me. The last time I was this deep underground was when I found Leri and her tale of encountering Herobrine was fresh on my mind.

Sven, Tiny, Kefka and I left the pit as quickly as we could manage it and I thought back over the lack of Nether entities in the past few months. What has happened, I haven't seen a Blaze in weeks and there's only been the occasional Zombie Pigman from lightning strikes. Has whatever summoned that devil been nullified, or is this simply the calm before the storm?

Henri Lemark

A/N:! The appearances in this chapter are thanks to The British Epicface with Joanna Gold and her spider friends and Cerberus0225 who suggested some content with the strip mine. I hope I painted the picture both of you were hoping to see. There is a Tumblr for the story and hopefully for a future project with Moonlight who has given me so much content to write about.


	32. Chapter 32 (Flight: Festus and Lothar)

Year XXXX July 1

Finally, we have caught up to Effar and the others and I am overjoyed to see all the familiar faces I've come to know and respect. Knell is a lot bigger than I remember but she still can't teleport on her own. The extended absence of her uncle and his return made her squeal as loudly as a pig before she attached herself firmly to his leg and began babbling to him about what she had seen while Sven was away.

Adone scolded her son soundly and I was happy when I was put down so I could get away from the scene to see that Tiny was greeted with far less drama and he looked at his mother curiously. Enzi ran up to me and chattered at me faster than I could understand about things that have happened to the clan during my absence and I did my best to respond on get her to calm down when something strange happened.

It started with a sound, a loud buzzing that became a loud droning like I have never heard before followed swiftly with something tan fell from the sky trailing smoke like a meteor. It came so close that the Endermen felt compelled to duck and those not scared motionless teleported away. Knell clung to Sven and whimpered while Sasha looked torn between running away and saving her baby.

Half of the clan hurried to where the thing had crashed, the rest stared around, and looked ready for a fight. I went with the group that swarmed the large meteor and I stared at it in awe. I have never seen anything like it before and I don't think it has been seen anywhere else or at least I haven't heard about it.

Fabric was pulled across the object and it was cylindrical for the most part, two long flat oblongs stuck out for the sides and the tube narrowed as it want back where it exterminated into a strange cross. At the other was a plate glass bubble with a spinning double blade like two swords merged just before the guard only much larger and twisted opposite each other. Inside this bubble was a man and he pushed the glass up with his hands and it swung up and away. All the while, the blades spun slower and the mechanical noise died.

Endermen crawled over the plane and tested it with tooth and claw and the man climbed out of the odd craft, waved his hands at the Endermen, and hollering to get them to crawl off it. There was something about him that commanded respect, I felt like a young man being grilled by my father. We looked at each other for a while; he wore a brown outfit that didn't seem to fit him well with goggles around his neck and a helmet under one arm and me in my faded clothing and no pumpkin. We couldn't look more like strangers from different worlds.

He introduced himself as Lothar Glogner from the Belkan Air Force from the Belka Nation and demanded to know what nation I hailed from. When I failed to give him an answer, he pulled out a sword and the Endermen I knew best reacted to my fear at the swift movement and fled the scene while others looked up into the sky. No one interfered; I don't think they could see us clearly enough to make out what was going on, if what Sven wrote is anything to go by.

I had been ignoring the upward glances of the Endermen for a while now and both the Belkan and I were taken by surprise when a giant balloon dropped from the sky with the largest basket I've ever seen under it. The balloon was massive made of finely woven cloth with a strange mechanism under its opening that somehow belched fire in timed bursts, I couldn't see who or what was c controlling it.

The ungainly craft landed heavily on its basket, bounced before a young Enderman tumbled out of it, and freed the mechanism to keep the mechanism from spitting fire. He dropped a large rock on the ground attached to the basket with a sturdy rope. The mechanism kept the strange furnace flaming but the giant balloon never left the ground.

The yellow-eyed Ender was as tall as I am, and he wore clothes, in particular green tinted goggles the same as Lothar had around his neck and a purple and yellow scarf. With his unusual and mostly silent craft secured, the youth rushed over to the only humans in the area, and grabbed the sword to look it over and thrust a hand at my chest, his claws were short so he didn't actually hurt anyone but it was still startling.

I don't know what he hoped to find but he knocked me to the ground and a few things scattered on the crushed grass before Kefka had a chance to realize I had been attacked. He spoke in a dialect I didn't immediately understand but I was able to pick out that this was Festus and he loved human things and especially gold. He rushed to the plane and gabbed about its' 'wings' with his hands on the flat protrusions from the main body of the Belkan craft.

The Belkan pilot snatched my flint and steel from the ground and flicked it at the plane to start a fire. Between the canvas and the dry, grass under it, the thing caught surprisingly quickly and the flying Enderman squealed in alarm and tore a branch from a nearby tree to try to put it out. He stepped on and tripped over his scarf and the fresh branch landed on the fire, which fueled it, and the odd craft was burning in no time.

The sky craft burned quickly and the young ender wailed as the pilot turned his back on everyone and left smoldering wreckage and us but not before he fired a rocket into the air. The blessed night was broken with a flash of light in green yellow and gray that faded into cyan and magenta and that's the last I saw of the odd person. Festus wailed over what he called an airplane and sat on the ground until the last ember went cold before he dragged himself back to his own craft and rose into the waning night.

Belka, what kind of place is it where man has made a vehicle that can pierce the skies and dance among the clouds.

Henri Lemark

A/N: Thanks go to Trudy1 for her character Lothar Glogner and Festus the Ender for well himself~! How interesting that we see airplanes and hot air balloons. It seems Miinecraftia is steadily advancing!


	33. Chapter 33 (Thunder and Riley)

Year XXXX July 8

Notch made all things with Jeb and other minor deities but I have seen some things that make me wonder about Their motives. Surely, some forms of life are better served by having their own purpose instead of being thrown together into one body to try to fit into the world they are cast into. The two experiments of life I have met are decidedly strange and one looked like a mistake to me though it got along perfectly well with its environment.

The first one I met was actually a wolf/ocelot hybrid that looked like nothing I've seen before, with elemental powers! I stumbled across it on the edge of a swamp and I barely missed being hit by thunder. Yellow fur bristled, red eyes watched me intently, and it had the long wolf like legs and large paws though these were ringed with black fur and dark claws. Black paws were pushed firmly against bare rock before I had to throw myself to the ground. From this new vantage point, I noticed more before this creature took aim at me again.

The fur on its chest and the end of its tail seemed matted into a spike of fur for what purpose I don't know. Both are ill placed for defense and only the tail spike seems to have any offensive use if attacked from behind. Long hairs at the nape of its neck and shoulders danced with electricity and I rolled to avoid another strike while the smell of burnt ground and air surrounded me. I did not escape unscathed from the second attack, I was left stunned and in pain on the ground from a chance hit to the legs.

I fully expected to be finished, to lose everything and be reborn where I last slept in a real bed. It meant every shred of progress I had made with this clan would be lost and I'd have to start fresh with a new one. There was no practical way I could return to this spot in time to get my things and catch up to Endermen who outpace humans without a thought. I couldn't move, and there was not an Enderman in sight to help me with this hostile creature, even Kefka was away hunting sheep so I was utterly alone.

The last thing I expected was for it to approach, lick my hand and sniff my face like a pet; its eyes were wary and static clung to the fur on its body. It is not the kind of reaction you would get from a male so I feel assured to call it female, I was not about to check the usually way for gender. She was a seamless fusion of wolf and ocelot, her tail was long and bushy, ears pointed and catlike, I do not know what to make of the matted fur protrusions; perhaps Notch is playing around with life?

She hung around at a wary distance once I regained control of my body and given how this new animal defends itself I think Thunder may be a good way to refer to her. She was indifferent to most Enderman and allowed Sven, Tiny, and Kefka to be close without fur standing on end. As we approached the end of the forest, Thunder pulled back and sat on her haunches to watch us continue our journey. She must have a home range in that forest, I would have liked to tame her but she may not be as alone as I believe her to be.

Which leads me to the second unusual being I've seen, a Halfling that really makes me wonder about Notches motives. When I first saw Riley, I mistook her for someone with unusually dark skin and slightly odd body proportions but she approached without fear of the Endermen and they seemed to treat her as they do any wandering lone female, with consideration and interest. There was hardly any time to think about the clans reactions when the young lady spoke up in the Enders language and greeted the whole clan.

Half-human, half-Enderman, I would not have believed that was possible if Riley wasn't right here, with her arms wrapped around an iron block and utterly asleep. Like Theo, she wears blue clothes minus shoes and her nails are ever so slightly claw like. Her hair is as black as is her skin and there are purple highlights throughout it like the particles Endermen routinely emit. In many ways, she is human; she makes eye contact, and eats far more foods than any Enderman I've met. I wonder just how much she is like Endermen though.

She was very shy at first but she approached me at the end of the first day with a worn book, my works published, and said she wanted to see my work firsthand. Knell and Bina watched the Halfling and whispered to each other, since my return Bina has really blossomed and treats Svens' niece like a little sister. Those girls, they are the only ones in the clan, many of the adolescents I knew are gone and there are many new faces. I am glad I was welcomed back into Effars clan,

I wonder how long Riley will stay with us and if there are others like her and Thunder, stuck between two worlds and making the most of it. Notch, what are you doing?

Henri Lemark

A/N: Last update in the month of update challenge! Thanks goes to FreelanceRiley for their Enderman Halfling character and Joltcario for her ocelot hybrid Thunder. These two are the first hybrid characters I've been presented with so I hope I've done them justice (I enjoyed having Henri be attacked again the old man really needs to spice his life up~!) Also... by accident this chapter has never been seen on this site until 8/30/2014. I greatly apologize for this oversight.


	34. Chapter 34 (Blookstained)

Year XXXX J- 13

*The page is covered in blood and all you can reed are a few sentences here and there. What you can read is not reassuring.*

- should have known that Friday the 13th wouldn't end we- - -, Herobrine attacked. He was ruthless and utterly alone, not that such a man needs any protection. I was grabbed from behind before I even knew the devil was there and he shook me like a doll before I was thrown up and back into the nearest tree. The clan reacted instantly to the Devils presence and scattered to protect the children while those that could fight, including Riley, stared down the white eyed demigod and growled. The sound was grating but Herobrine didn't seem to notice - - - or i- he d- - -urde- - -re.

He moved like the wind, in seconds Effar was - down w- - - from th- -mond sword. A-ne screamed, threw - over Effar and hissed - - -ine. S-n saw the -sure pl-s before I did and -med at the clan about them even as - -sive males - - - -t- -eir lead- - didn't notice th- pres- -late- - t-at - sand - - -n sunk under - feet - - bott- - - stomach.

- chaos b- - - - -NT traps - - - - -s ha- -d to stay alive. Kefka d-c-d ar-d- t- -ger like - trained animal - - and attac- -obri- -tly b-f- - -ld call h- -. - -ut- kn-d - - - -he air w-h - - -f h- - -nd my wo- -t dow- - - whim-.

- fast as the fi- -arted, it e- - half - clan str- -ross the - -arth - pearls - - - - left alive - serious injuries. T- injured and dead - - -nd I was dragged - behind Enzi a- -ne of her suit- Dorvak - - fled -e fire- s- -y Herobrine - - into the ground t- - - - -uldn'- -.

- - - now, we are huddling - - - - - a stronghold - silverfish roam freely - Bina - - - chasing the - fish around hap- - - -tten - - -. - first she worried -t Tobi - - - -o I took so- lapis - - - - painted the end- - - sc-s blue - - - find her spe- -nd eas-.

- -dermen tended - -heir woun- - sam- -I've always - by roll- - pearl - - injurie- - - - too weak t- - -m fro- doing the same to me. - - cold a-d th- numb from the pearls healing influence, - I welcomed. Ende- can-t heal woun- -tely - - -ut they have - - stopped the bleeding - -de the - bearable, I -'t say - - f-r Kefka.

S- - barely alive wh- - -rmen lai- her - - tr- - - the wolf but it had no effect - - c-anion, she - to whimper - cry with blood matting her gray fur. Riley didn't participate - the healing but she did shred - wool blocks into usable bandages and tended Keffy's wounds sy-ally. In the -, - - - half-mummified wolf ginger- eating from - -nds of exhausted healers.

I'm not going to write for a few days at least. This quill is - lead an- - - getting ink all over my fingers. - - - glowering at me - -ng that I ne- -st and I think I agree - -, I feel - heavy an- -n -'s arms, I think I could sleep - - she is a mother and Kne- is s-gled right against me.

Knell is really cute and those long legs of hers are wrapped around mine so thoroughly that even if I wanted to get up I couldn't' without waking the girl. Currently have my journal resting on Knell's arm and with the ink sack sitting on her shoulder, when Sasha sees this she might dislodge everything so I'll stop here for now.

Henr-


	35. Chapter 34 (Cleaned)

Year XXXX June 13

*The page has been restored but there are still discolorations from the blood that once soaked the paper*

I should have known that Friday the 13th wouldn't end well for anyone, Herobrine attacked. He was ruthless and utterly alone, not that such a man needs any protection. I was grabbed from behind before I even knew the devil was there and he shook me like a doll before I was thrown up and back into the nearest tree. The clan reacted instantly to the Devils presence and scattered to protect the children while those that could fight, including Riley, stared down the white eyed demigod and growled. The sound was grating but Herobrine didn't seem to notice it at all or if he did the murderer didn't care.

He moved like the wind, in seconds Effar was cut down with one slash from that diamond sword. Adone screamed, threw herself over Effar and hissed madly at Herobrine. Sven saw the pressure plates before I did and screamed at the clan about them even as young, aggressive males rushed in to protect their leader; they didn't notice the pressure plates or that the sand they were on sunk under their feet like the bottom of my stomach.

Utter chaos broke out when the TNT traps went off and I was hard pressed to stay alive. Kefka danced around the danger like the trained animal she was and attacked Herobrine directly before I could call her away. That brute knocked her out of the air with the flat of his blade and my wolf went down with a whimper.

As fast as the fight started, it ended with half the clan strewn across the torn earth as pearls and half of those left alive with serious injuries. The injured and dead were gathered and I was dragged along behind Enzi and one of her suitors Dorvak as we fled the fires set by Herobrine and dove into the ground to some goal I couldn't fathom.

Which leads to now, we are huddling in the innermost room of a stronghold where silverfish roam freely and Bina had taken to chasing the little fish around happily like a kitten following a chick. At first she worried that Tobi would be lost so I took some lapis from my bag and painted the ends of his scales blue so she could find her special friend easily.

The Endermen tended to their wounded the same way I've always seen by rolling a pearl along the injuries and I was too weak to keep them from doing the same to me. I felt cold and then numb from the pearls healing influence, which I welcomed. Endermen cannot heal wounds completely with me but they have at least stopped the bleeding and made the pain bearable, I can't say the same for Kefka.

She was barely alive when the Endermen laid her out and tried to tend the wolf but it had no effect on my companion, she continued to whimper and cry with blood matting her gray fur. Riley didn't participate in the healing but she did shred some wool blocks into usable bandages and tended Keffy's wounds systematically. In the end, we had a half-mummified wolf gingerly eating from the hands of exhausted healers.

I'm not going to write for a few days at least. This quill is like lead and I am getting ink all over my fingers. Sven has been glowering at me and hissing that I need rest and I think I agree with him, I feel very heavy and in Sasha's arms, I think I could sleep safely since she is a mother and Knell is snuggled right against me.

Knell is really cute and those long legs of hers are wrapped around mine so thoroughly that even if I wanted to get up I couldn't' without waking the girl. Currently have my journal resting on Knell's arm and with the ink sack sitting on her shoulder, when Sasha sees this she might dislodge everything so I'll stop here for now.

Henr-


	36. Chapter 35 (Sven Writes about Herobrine)

Year XXXX June 14

Henri's not well enough to write so I get to use his small book again! Earlier we thought we were safe in a stronghold guarded by silverfish, Mom was healing Dad when a white eyed human appeared to stab Henri and my sister. Sasha screamed like her life was near its end and Henri just stared at the diamond sword in disbelief. My friend, he didn't make a sound, Henri just let his quill drop from his hand and sighed under Herobrines' unblinking gaze, then he started bleeding way to much as the sword was twisted.

The moment felt heavy, like if I moved at all that everything would change. If I did nothing, this evil thing would kill everyone I knew but if I acted, took my father's place as head of the clan even for a moment while he was too injured to lead I might take leadership from him, like my brother before me tried to do. The last few days flashed through my mind as I tried to figure out what I was suppose to do and when the moment passed it was like being doused with water and I was disconnected from the world to watch it happen without feeling it.

I don't understand what happened next, it was like my body and my mind were disconnected and I watched the world around me from the ceiling. I watched as an Ender with bandages on his arms and legs strode forward and slapped the evil human away from the three people I cared about most, the human sailed across the cave without his sword and slammed into a wall so hard he cracked the stone bricks and got showered in stone. Knell was screaming and crying and my mother was beside herself between protecting my sister or her mate. It was all so clear. Time moved impossibly slow, my body was moving faster and better than it ever had in my life and I couldn't feel a thing.

It followed the demon and kicked the human creature across the cave into another wall but Herobrine was ready for the attack and landed in a crouch, he wasn't hurt at all! My body rushed at the human and that monster just watched before lunging and kicking ME clear across the cave and through a wall, I still didn't feel a thing but I knew at this time that I probably should have. Humans fear this one of their number above all other things, they have stories of it slaughtering entire cities but I thought it was all a lie; Humans can't do all those horrible things alone.

This one can. He watched to make sure my body wasn't going to move right away and those cruel white eyes, they turned back to my sister. She still moaned and screamed and her mate was huddled over her and tried to protect her and remove the sword but Dorvak wasn't doing either very well. My body was dragging itself from the rubble, Herobrine can't be human; humans can't kick you through stone at all. White eyes without emotion, he looked at me and twitched when Henri pulled out his bow and fired. I could see the arrow sticking out of the monsters back.

My body was struggling to get free from debris when Herobrine turned and sprinted to kill my friend. Dad was recovered just enough to recognize danger but Mom held him down, dad wouldn't survive against the human devil and Mom knew it. Then things changed and got a little weird, an arrow larger than any I've seen barely missed the evil human and I saw a second arrow, a human sized one one, fly at him but it didn't come from Henri since his bow was broken. This arrow was special; it sunk into Herobrines arm, knocked him backwards away from everyone and set him on fire.

Bina jumped on Herobrines back and pulled him away from the diamond sword and Knell hung from an arm to help but she's still too small, the monster threw her carelessly at dad and he went down again. I didn't see it happen but Bina was on the ground under Herobrines foot when another large arrow knocked him back and away. I saw the bow people (archers?) that time; a human woman was holding a glowing bow notched with a flaming arrow and next to her was an Endergirl holding a bow too large for any human to use. The two fought Herobrine and he seemed to have a hard time handling it without his sword but not because he wasn't trying to win.

I don't know HOW but every monster Herobrine summoned turned into an oddly colored egg when they got within throwing range of the purple haired human and her kicks were managing to cause some damage. Energy radiated from her and it was like being in sunlight, once I got use to it, and Herobrine felt like a drain, he sucked warmth and life from me every time he got too close. The human girl was teleporting just like my people only she held a compass and flicked it in the air before moving and leaving the white eyed man with nothing to fight but black particles, which made him mad.

I remember Henri teaching me how to use a bow when I was his size so I snatched it from the strange Endergirl without realizing that my body and I had rejoined. I moved and waited until I had a clear shot and I set an arrow free, it flew true. The strange girl looked at me like she was lost and fidgeted with a gold band she wore around her wrist without trying to take her bow back; it was like she was afraid. Maybe she was, she was definitely strange.

The fight ended when the human woman kicked Herobrine in a tender place and he bent over double before fading away only to reappear behind her an in the way of my arrow. Those white eyes were stunned when he was pinned to the wall by the shoulder, so I shot him a few times more to make sure he wasn't get free. Then the new human dumped water on the ledge above Herobrine and the fight was really over.

The new human saved Henri from dying and yanked the sword out before she did the same with my sister but I saw her look concerned when the bleeding didn't stop. This human, the strange girl called her Val, said she didn't want to risk moving Henri until he was stable and dad was in no shape to be moved so we are still in the stronghold. Val had to make a platform to stand on made of cobblestone for her and Henri because the Silverfish are upset and attacked the humans without a care and Bina lost Tobi in the swarm several times before the gray land fish decided to hide in the stone brick walls.

I'm very tired now and so sore I can't stand it, get better soon Henri. I don't want to have to watch death rites in your honor.

Sven

A/N: I just had to be in my own story so I threw in a little cameo with my Minecraft self, The_VALKYRIE. I moderate a server and a lot of what's been mentioned in this chapter is powers I have in that server. I know it's been a long while since I updated and I hope this makes up for it with a little slapstick abuse for our dear friend Herobrine~!


	37. Chapter 36 (VALKYRIE and Ender Empathy)

Shores of the Ancients: Year 21XX June 17

I guess you are all expecting an entry from Henri Lemark but he's still not quite together enough to do anything more than walk around the hospital and sleep until he's stronger. He's really lucky to be alive ya know, Herobrine had Serrated Strike on his sword and that's a right nasty thing to be hit with because you will keep bleeding for a long time. I'm keeping the sword by the way. It will go well with my two god bows which is good since I am not really a fighter and good weapons aren't things I come by easily.

Guess I outta do this properly so Henri understands this entry when he's ready to leave the server and return to his world. Yes that's right, Server; I brought Henri and that Enderman clan here to protect them from Herobrine since Notches brother seems to have a hard time crossing into servers. Safest place to be really unless the Lord of the Nether REALLY decides he wants in and then he tends to glitch people out during the process.

My name's VALKYRIE though most call me Val, I'm a Moderator here in the Shores of the Ancients and dang proud of it. I do the job well and without complaints and have made a great many friends here including the fickle Kenstructor, long suffering Leponder and the ever charming Awollangk. They are a few of the Administrators and they make sure everything's in order here what with Icarus having issues on occasion and Daedalus being MIA, both Icarus and Daedalus are starships but I like to think of Icarus as being alive since he talks often enough.

During the fight Sven wrote about I used a few mod abilities to pull even with that maniac including my /kick and item linked /jumpto. When I showed up on the scene I didn't know what I would walk into but saving Endermen wasn't the first thing on my mind. Saving Herobrine wasn't on my agenda either but what can you do when life throws lemons at you? I just hope the brute doesn't think I was showing him mercy because I might be from that odd religion that worships him as the god of death and rebirth or whatever it is.

For a while Herobrine has been looking for something, reports about disappearances of young women that are said to be 'Daughters of Notch' are piling up everywhere but no one seems to care. I have no idea what this really means but whenever I leave the server to investigate the disappearances on Kens orders since we have had a few run ins with that white eyed nut but the people I meet say I'm a Daughter as well. I think they're confusing Mod powers with something godly but I can't blame them for thinking it. I don't want to think they are right either but my abilities outta fade entirely when I leave the Ancient Shores instead of just getting weak and blending with abilities I get from another server.

It really is strange when I think about it so I try not to because if these people are right about me then I might be on Herobrines radar and I do not want to know where these missing women are going. None are ever seen alive but corpses of a few have been found. It looked like something had exploded from inside those poor souls and it killed them so thoroughly they didn't re-spawn. Between that and all the craziness in the Overworld about the Nether encroaching fairly constantly somethings going down and I'm scared of it.

For now though things are peaceful, I've put Sven and his clan in my townhouse where they can be safe from the sun and I've asked Annalae to let them know not to cross the Towny boundary into the rest of Jita or they'd be erased. I don't know if the clan really understood what she said but seeing Creepers and Zombies being dissolved sure has convinced them to heed the warning. Svenny keeps looking at Anna and she blushes when she catching him doing that so I gotta wonder if he's got a little crush.

And now to touch on something about Endermen so this entry isn't a complete waste of paper. I don't know if this is just her or maybe something that all Endermen can do but Annalae is really empathetic to the point where she can feel what others are feeling about her. She said when I first found her that she knew she could trust me, young as she was back then, because I 'felt' like her mom. She hasn't been wrong about people either, she has a gut feeling about how trustworthy everyone she meets is and has eluded mob collectors without missing a beat.

I can't get her to describe it much more than that but it's definitely not mind reading that she's talking about, it seems more like she can somehow see emotion in the immediate vicinity. If that's true them it might explain why Endermen have become tolerant of our gazes to a point but I'm still going to do my own research about how belief affects the Far Landers. Being relatively alone in my personal research is fine to a point but I need to get my work known.

So far it works well since I can get the same effect from my glasses that most people get with a pumpkin but I need to get other people to test the theory with me, I know I can get Theo to help he's just wild about Endermen. Maybe I can ask Henri to test it out, after all he wears glasses too and he has an interest in Endermen so it outta be easy to arrange IF he can suspend his disbelief.

On a side note an Enderman I've been watching that lives in an NPC village near Jita actually wandered into my house and socialized with the clan I'm protecting. She's less of a fighter than I am but this Endergirl does have a wolf companion that she dyed by accident so he's mostly cyan with a splash of yellow on his tail and head and startlingly orange eyes, his name is Wilson

This girl, she has tried communicating when I talk with her but all I've gotten is her name which is Uvvi. there's not much to her except that she loves eating apples like it's going out of style and being quite tame with everyone she meets. I look out for her since not everyone cares to have an Enderman in their backyard but I just ADORE these tall entities to the point where I go to The End and hug as many as I can before fleeing into a Nether Portal to avoid the dragon.

P.S. Kicking Herobrine in the cubes was fun!

The_VALKYRIE


	38. Chapter 37 (Henri has returned)

Shores of the Ancients: Year 21XX June 30

A lot has happened since I last wrote in this book and I will have a scar to show for it for the rest of my days as well as the memories. This Shore of the Ancients place is far more advanced than anything I've yet seen and I feel out of my element as a guest in VAL's house with the clan. It seems normal enough but when I look closely I see many things that don't make any sense to me like a box that heats and cooks food without fire. There is even a fenced off building that creates power to light several of these houses up all night long without torches or redstone and I'm told it's perfectly safe as long as the building structure doesn't melt down.

I haven't even touched on how these people move around from place to place, I came to this town, and it's called Jita, from the hospital by way of an odd aircraft called a hell-o-copter. I was literally herded into the red metal craft and held on for my life as it lifted itself from the ground and started flying through the air. Here and there, I saw scars on the land and husks of ruined cities while my escorts chatted as if this kind of transportation was normal, perhaps it is here but never before in my life have I been so thrilled and terrified.

I felt new fear as we passed over a vast ocean where I doubted we could land when I saw a large fishing ship bobbing on the blue water below with an orange and white flag waving from its tallest mast. Such a ship could not go far from land and that sign of life comforted me that the people here weren't as alien as their technology suggested. Sometime later a massive land arch in the distance with a pair of equally massive doors with the marking as the clippers flag on them it broke the blue horizon before the sun stained the sky orange and behind that set of doors was our destination, Jita.

The town is sprawling with an extremely tall mountain at its center and wide roads so you can walk from one section to the other and below ground is a rail system so you don't even have to walk if you don't want to. After the aircraft left me behind in the town square I was greeted by a young man and given a tour before being shown where Sven and the others were being housed. I was highly relieved since the town had grown quite dark and I hadn't seen a single mob except for cats, tamed wolves and cattle. It turns out that this place is protected against hostile mobs and any that show up in the towns boundaries get destroyed instantly.

My guide was a town assistant and told me that I would be meeting the Mayor soon if I stayed at the house, which I did do since I knew town's mayor had handled the expenses for my recovery. The clan's younger members swarmed me the moment I entered the house and I couldn't get a sentence out before I was handed off and checked over by the survivors. They knew they were in a human settlement that somehow didn't terminate them and they wanted a human's insight into why.

Before I could admit my ignorance the purple haired woman that had given me first aid in the cave strolled into the house without a pumpkin on and things went so fast I can't remember them clearly. She is the mayor of Jita and she brought the clan to this place to be safe from Herobrines' rage, though he has tried getting in a few times according to her. Whenever that monster attacks, things start slowing down and people have a hard time moving which I have noticed.

Knell interrupted us, dragged me around the house to see her favorite places, and talked incessantly about this being a separate place in time from where we had been but I couldn't really understand her. My head was too full from the trip here to take in any more information and I was still not up to being on my feet for hours on end. She looked at me before I could tell her I couldn't keep up and I felt a stab of pain as she teleported me to a large room filled to the gills with beds with only just enough space between them to let you walk around with difficulty.

I will be setting out again on my travels in about a week, Effar doesn't like this place any more than I do but Endermen can't seem to escape back to whence we came on their own so we are all stuck until we are shown a way out. That is not to say the people here aren't welcoming, they've all been very cordial and have treated us well but I miss the simplicity of home. They are putting some supplies and equipment together for me so I can be prepared to set out which includes new glasses, mine were broken beyond repair. My benefactor told me in no uncertain terms that I would be getting a better pair that would have the same effect as a pumpkin thanks to some clear coating on the glass.

Henri Lemark


	39. Chapter 38 (Herobrine's at the Shore)

Shores of the Ancients: Year 21XX July 4

It seems my departure will be delayed for a bit, Herobrines' insistent attack on this world came to a fever pitch when he actually broke in one night. Many people and their machines slowed to a crawl until He broke in through the largest cities Nether portal, three Ghasts flying side by side could have passed through it without touching each other or the edges of the portal. Thankfully, I was not in the area when He made his appearance but the crewmembers that lived long enough to cry out a warning let the engineers scramble their defenses.

Herobrine was limited in what he could do but to say that the Lord of the Nether was without power is a gross error, he could only whisper and couldn't appear behind you at will but he was still strong as an iron golem and faster than an Enderman. An order was issued not to engage if Herobrine wasn't attacking you so all of Jita was on high alert. Most people were preparing for a fight in the off chance that the trouble came to us but a most made themselves busy with other things.

My benefactor took a diamond hoe, tilled the ground for a new farm, and attacked the ground vigorously. Something about the encounter in the cave has been bothering her and Valkyrie won't elaborate except to say that she doesn't want to meet Herobrine again. I had learned enough about this place to feel confident that we wouldn't be seeing him in the town but I was mistaken when he used the warp system (the towns warp is supposed to be private) and appeared in the town square the helicopter had landed in. He immediately set about trying to create chaos and destruction and looked around in confusion when he couldn't affect his surroundings at all.

Instead He went for the farm section which was at the towns boundary, I'm not sure what he expected but I'm sure it wasn't three iron golems that hadn't been there a second ago. The metal behemoths kicked him out of the town and the Mayor, who actually summoned the golems from eggs she always keeps on her person, reported the incident. She directed their attack while calling for Administrator backup and staying behind glowstone markers that marked the edge of the fields at night. The devil was thoroughly distracted by his metal opponents but when he got past them to attack us; he was suddenly impotent and could do no harm.

It was the same protection that kept hostile mobs from appearing in the streets and in Jita, at least it denied combat damage unless dictated otherwise. For all his power Herobrine was denied nearly everything that makes him terrifying in the towns' boundaries but the towns' defenders were quick to intercept the brute and kick him back out into the wilds where the golems would administer their brand of justice. More than once Herobrine was grabbed and swung back into the fray with the Mayors diamond hoe and each time made him more and more furious.

By the time I'd arrived Kenstructor was assembling a large cannon shaped like a skull and Herobrine had finally managed to destroy the last iron golem when the battle took a turn for the worse, he grabbed people from the edge of the Towny boundary and dragged them forward where he could kill them. He took out three men before we knew what had happened and he made a run for Valkyrie before the cannon was set, she won her freedom by using the hoe to cut her hair free and backed all the way into the farm before I was ready to cast my first combat spell.

In this world, they have managed to tap into the life-force of the planet and use it to help them survive in this strange world. After I applied for membership as a part of the crew, I undertook some studies to become a mage so I wouldn't sit around doing nothing and it's really paid off. I can now encase targets in glass so they can't move and this is what I did with Herobrine. He was too focused on fishing people out to notice me using a lacquered stick to write an elaborate symbol in the air.

He was stunned to be trapped and before he could recover enough to start breaking out Val rushed forward and put the chunk he was in under Towny protection making it imposable for Herobrine to escape. He tried to break the glass panes but they refused to be broken by an outsider and he remained frustrated until Alex, one of the towns' assistants, broke enough of the panes to expose the monsters upper body. I couldn't help feeling a bit of sympathy for him as a line of archers took turns shooting him in the glass cage I'd made and Herobrine did all that he could to escape before Kenstructor gave the word to evacuate the area. The cannon he had been setting up fired primed TNT at the glass cage and Herobrine took a beating along with a few town residents that didn't run away fast enough. It must be special TNT because the only damage it did was to the people, Herobrine, and the one chicken that wandered into the farm at the worst possible time.

After three volleys, he was down for the count and the Administrators wrapped him up and banished him troug the portal he'd come from, hopefully for good. As the defenders left I caught sight of an odd fellow with a green glowing face and a limp who hadn't actually fought and used a half broken hoe as a crutch, something was familiar about the fellow. I hardly had a chance to follow when everything went dark as the large portal he used drew power from around the planet to carry out the Engineers commands.

What did he come here for I wonder? I know there is a fanatical sect that worships him as their god and they go so far as to make sacrifices and summon him for worship but this seemed somehow more personal than that. He went to the last person (that I'm aware of) who he fought and lost to and tried to smite her. I don't like that kind of implications but on a side note the new glasses I was given really work like a charm.

Effar doesn't notice that I'm looking at him and the new Enderwoman Uvvi is occupying her time with the clan, I think she means to join. She is not the only one either, beyond the cemetery, here in town is a swamp where Endermen live and have learned to fashion their own tools. Annalie is from that clan but she has no use for the longbow she made and she gave the weapon to Sven since he showed skill while I had a sword in my gut. One of the females in the swamp clan seems fascinated with me and I've woken up to her standing over me protectively several nights in a row, it makes me a little uncomfortable to be honest.

Henri Lemark


	40. Chapter 39 (Back on Track)

Year XXXX July 13

Back on Track

I have set out today to the world I came from with Theo, who regularly visits Valkyrie, and VAL herself. When I first met the young man I never would have believed that he was using a portal that crossed time and space to get to the lady scientist whose work I found intriguing. Having been there though, I am amazed that her work is spreading in my time and that it's gaining popularity. There are more people out in the world willing to try to live in peace with Enderman and a method that will let them interact without having to wear a pumpkin is definitely appealing.

I have a lot of new equipment this time around. A radio that will let me talk to either of my companions no matter how far apart we are, and a member ID that will let me get to the server quickly if I manage to construct the Void Portal needed to cross a 'gap in time'. I even have a few extra pairs of glasses in case one gets broken, and a device that will signal distress when activated. The radio and distress device are alien to me but I didn't make any fuss about them since both Theo and our lady friend showed no hesitation in accepting them. I hope to not need them often but one never knows what the future will bring.

I was half expecting to see some sign of Herobrine since the three of us had to enter the portal first to make sure the area was safe for the expanded clan but the cave was just we left it, blood stains and all. VAL and Theo jumped through the ceilings like ghosts in their own ways and pulled me after them until we were on the surface in some extreme hills when we called on Annalie to open the mob portal. It seems without a specialized portal Mobs cannot leave the time they are in; the mob portal looks identical to the portal people open so the difference is lost to me.

With that said, Anna cannot speak the Enderman language much less understand it so Sven has to translate for her. He has been asking her about how she made her bow and arrows and they seem like good friends but I don't see it progressing beyond that, Sven is old enough to start noticing the opposite gender so why does he appear oblivious? I am not sure what I was hoping for exactly but our unexpected vacation at the Shores gave Tiny and Bina time to socialize with other Enders their age and Tiny is showing a lot of interest in one of the swamp females.

The Endermen on the other side were ready to go when the Mob portal was opened but not we were not ready for the stampede that came at us. None of us got away unscathed from their eagerness to be free and it was dear Enzi that picked our battered bodies from the trampled dirt along with Uvvi. Wilson yipped happily around the clan and attempted to herd the younglings into a tight circle around Sasha while my wolf sat and snorted at the young ones antics.

In the chaos a wolf pack bolted across the hills with a man trailing behind them with an iron sword slung over a shoulder. In the moonlight, it was hard to tell at a distance but the man wore dark clothing, leather armor and had pale skin and was distrustful of the clan and myself. The wolves milled about sniffing everything and yelped when the Mob portal snapped closed, then the stranger unslung his bow and his wolves darted away. We stared at each other for a long time until Theo grabbed something from VAL's pack and threw it, several of them actually.

Man and wolves were taken off guard by the sudden appearance of a large herd of cows and the pale stranger fired arrows at Theo, I assume because he moved during our standoff. The wolves went wild and started harassing the bovines and taking them down which gave us ample time to get out of the packs immediate reach with Riley leading the way. The man however kept an eye on us until we were out of his range, the Enders were still mixed with the wolves but as they separated, we rejoined the clan.

Uvvi, Annalae and the rest of the clan were relieved to be beyond the packs range and Wilson was much calmer than before with his tail hanging low and sticking close to Kefka. Uvvi explained the pups' odd coloring briefly as an accident in a dye factory but other than a permanent fur coloration that deviates from the norm, he seems perfectly fine. Wilson is active, affectionate and protects his Enderman master just as Kefka does for me but he needs to grow into his feet before he can be able to take on other wolves.

On a side note I have decided to take Theo on as an apprentice, he is eager and willing but the boy lacks the training to let him get closer to clans without having to test his chances at rebirth. There are more Endermen than I could ever hope to shadow so any assistance would greatly aid the understanding of these creatures.

Henri Lemark

Zack of death: Thanks for submitting Volk! Sorry it took so long to add you to the story but I needed a good time to have a wolf pack advance on Henri. I hope it's accurate.


	41. Chapter 40 (Dream and Departures)

Year XXXX July 20

Yesterday VAL separated from us after we met a nice lady with a hot temper named Lillian Sparks. We literally ran into Lilly and she gave us all a sound tongue-lashing until she cooled down and apologized. She had eyes a lighter shade of blue than my own and scars on her left arm though I'm not sure why they're clustered only there. Without needing to ask I knew she was in her upper teens but very wise for her years and insisted on calling us Sirs and Madame, which VAL didn't like because it made her feel old.

Lilly was quite taken with my work and even had copies of my journals on hand which surprised me; I would be lying if I didn't take a certain amount of pride from reading the leather bound books with their gilt pages and neat handwriting. A few things were changed here and there where my spelling variations differed from the norm but for the most part, it is practically identical. They even had my signature after each entry, which I found eye opening since I was not around to transcribe it for the council. I shouldn't read much into that, it may have been as simple a matter as poor handwriting on some of the more exhausting nights so they fixed that and had to put my signature back in by some means of transference.

Miss Sparks chatted with us for a while as the clan made a breeding structure and she played Bobstones with the youths that weren't helping and happily gave them food when she lost. I joined the game and talked with her while teaching Theo and VAL the ins and outs it, I haven't played Bobstones for months and it was a relief to do something normal with Endermen that wasn't fighting or running away. Annalae joined us and we all made room for her as she learned, she is unusual for an Enderwoman, with no clue about her people other than what she's been taught by her adopted mother and no way to speak with her kind but she is trying to associate with the clan which I find encouraging.

After the game ended Lilly and I talked about our fields of study and compared notes, while I specialized in the area of the neutral mobs she kept her knowledge broad but she took a special interest in anything that involved Herobrine. This intrigued the Moderator and the four of us started sharing stories of our encounters with the Lord of the Nether. Lilly insisted on seeing the scar of my last encounter with Herobrine and I couldn't find a good way to say no, the moment she saw the red flesh she pushed some remedies onto me and like her request, I couldn't refuse.

After Enzi and Dhan finished doing whatever it is Endermen do in those patchy structures, the two women went their own way and Theo and I continued with the clan. It was almost strange, to be with Endermen again but there is something to be said about having company, we followed Effar as he smelled the winds and struck out. He has kept a wary eye on Sven with his new bow but Sven has been very meek around his father and displays submissive body language often. If Kor had been that smart then maybe, he would have gotten to know his little brother.

I was puzzling over that as I went to sleep this morning and I dreamed the strangest thing, a man greeted me in a black suit, a white shirt and a hat with a sharp-toothed grin. In the dream, I was in a black space, the shadows were made of light, and the brightest shadows of all came from the stranger. Though his mouth moved I did not precisely hear what he was saying, not with my ears at least, I heard them in my mind.

This stranger told me that the Endermens' quest presents great danger if the God of Destruction manages to release the seals and that Hero's of the Land must do their part to prevent the shrines awakening. I tried to see in the darkness and shadows that surrounded the man but everything about him was shrouded, I couldn't tell you anything about him aside from his clothes and those teeth, which aren't as uncommon as one would believe. He put a hand on my head and it felt like I had been struck with lightning.

When I woke the whole clan was looking around wildly and Theo was bolting back to us with several bundles of wheat in his arms. The youth has taken to making temporary farms when we stop to rest and he uses the bone meal he gathers during the night to make the plants grow quickly enough to feed everyone. I had the impression that I wasn't the only one who had dreamt of the black clad man in the bright shadows but I hesitated to bring it up to Theo, he might think me crazy. Best to keep such things to myself until I can determine if he dreamed as well.

Henri Lemark

A/N And now to the backlog of cameo requests! Today we feature two characters from Fanfiction dot net

From Wulf-gurl we have Lillian Sparks, I've been looking forward to her appearance since it WILL help out with the loose plot behind the story. What's the plot, you'll see that later if you haven't figured parts of it out already!

Looking back on my cameos I have a very SPECIAL guest in this chapter, Severed Eternity also known as Agent Grayblade28 from greyblade28-and-knowledgeable0… HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR PART~!


	42. Chapter 41 (Temples)

Year XXXX August 3

Temples

That dream still weighs heavily upon me and I have no one to consult about it unless you count Witches and they can be fickle at the best of times. Since then I've been having other weird dreams with moving glyphs and runes dancing in darkness; I think it has something to do with that man from before, the one shrouded in light but I have no way to prove this other than a feeling in my gut. As one can imagine such plagued sleep is not restful so I've been falling behind and my young apprentice has noticed it, Theo has been glancing at my dream journal though but he won't be reading that volume, I keep it locked and on my person at all times.

Since we left the future world behind I am delighted to say that there has been no sighting of Herobrine, mob hunters, or Mob catchers (a variation that VAL told me about that captures and sells their non-human captives to the highest bidders) which I find a great relief. Recently the clan has been moving in a much more organized fashion and the individuals that usually search for food and danger have also been combing the land for signs of something. What's more, Effar and Adone have been looking at the sky constantly and leading us to a distant point by using the stars, like sailors who cross the vast oceans.

The Enders we acquired from the future may have something to do with this new behavior since they can create some tools and come from a time far advanced of my own but it's still alarming to see how swiftly such a change has come about. We have passed through routine landscape and a few quarries when I finally noticed that everything was bigger than I remember it being when I first started my travels. We spent four days skirting a massive desert before we made it to an equally large jungle where ocelots ran around like leaves on the wind.

We pushed through it when we came across a ruined structure, I hadn't seen a Jungle temple before but what I've read about them matched what I saw perfectly. The Endermen looked at it and I was rather shocked to see Sven arguing with his father while Underbite herded Theo and me to the structures opening. The young Enderwoman Mwol'lank that's been fixated on me followed us in and kept a hand on my head as Underbite continued to nudge us forward. Today she was holding a rose and tucked it under the arm of my glasses as she hunched over to fit in the darkened passage.

Theo thankfully knows more about these temples than I do so we didn't fall prey to the traps that fill the corridors, he disabled them as we were pushed forward but always my little escort was there, to protect us I think. As traps were cleared, the clan funneled in and when we got to the last chamber Effar pushed his way past us with some blood on his claws, Ender blood. He looked angry and Adone followed him looking very subdued with her pearl in her hands before it vanished into smoke, which she then inhaled.

My Notch there were symbols and runes carved in the stone in the last chamber, roughly and without the use of standard tools but I recognized them. They were the glyphs from my dreams, as real as the light of day and completely incomprehensible. Older Endermen crowded around the wall and touched the grooves, even licking them on occasion; when Riley, Uvvi and Sasha finally made it into the room, they looked confused. In the end, Sasha picked up her daughter and examined the grooves carefully, even sticking her own short claws into them and pulling them out sharply as if they had shocked her.

Now I know there are a few old languages and I've seen them carved on sandstone pillars and the like but these were like nothing I had seen before. Every time an Ender ran their fingers over the etchings, the whole thing glowed slightly like their eyes. Theo and I shared a glance when we saw it and I worked to commit what I was seeing to memory so I can recreate it here but I can only clearly recall a handful of the glyphs from both dreams and the temple.

Notch preserve us but Effar looked thrilled by what he saw in the jungle and left in considerably better spirits, Sven however was sporting a gash on his back, which explains the blood on his father's hands, and his mothers exposed pearl. My self-declared escort snatched me off the ground and refused let me down after we left the temple and has been glaring about balefully with purple eyes. The entire situation made me uneasy and I felt the same residual horror that I experienced after Herobrine had been banned from Shores of the Ancients.

There is something wrong in the world, I am afraid to ask what it is for fear of the answer.

Henri Lemark


	43. Chapter 42 (Pumpkins and Carrots)

Year XXXX August 19

I am starting to grow wary of being forced into caves in the early morning, especially when a strange man and the Enderman clan he follows with a small pack of wolves at his disposal. My first impression of this youth was that he might be similar to the aggressive youth that attacked Theo, VALKYRIE and I the moment we left that other world with their technology and ways to cheat death.. Unlike that unruly man, this one showed Effar and the whole clan deep respect and spoke with them in their own tongue, not only that but he is able to look at them without provoking an angry reaction. Tiny blinked in surprise and looked back at this man, who introduced himself as Master of Thieves, and touched the newcomer gently on the back as it to reassure himself that the human was real.

This self-proclaimed Master approached as the sun was rising and for the briefest moment, I thought he was on fire but it was just the glowing flames imprinted on his clothing. Because of the timing of his approach and the fact that for the most part the clan has not desensitized to sunlight like Sven, Tiny, Knell, Enzi, and Mel, Effar and the other males became defensive. There was a small standoff as the smaller clan approached but necessity and hunger kept it short, Adone growled at her mate and herded Uvvi into the cave with Riley and her granddaughter before any of the posturing became serious.

Grudgingly Effar allowed the strangers into the cave his people had staked out and made damned sure that the newcomers were closest to the entrance, which made the wolves happy. The moment the sun was up, they left in search of food and my apprentice and I were left with Master, Kefka whined after her kin and I felt obligated to let her hunt and socialize with her own kind. Some of the males in that pack looked her over and I began to regret the decision almost immediately. I doubt she would abandon me but I do not think I can look forward to caring for pups and keep up with Endermen at the same time, I dodged a bullet the last time she spent time with a male wolf and I can only be lucky a handful of times.

What I had thought were glowing flames on his outfit was actually a normal dye that had been treated by an invisible dye to glow in the moonlight. The glowing eyes that had deceived me into thinking of him as an Enderchild at first were painted onto a face mask that he never removed so his voice echoed oddly until I became use to it. Despite an initial fearsome appearance, Master of Thieves is quite the gentleman and we had a nice predawn meal as we exchanged pleasantries and news.

We spoke about Enderman legends and I was thrilled to learn a few more tales, which I will put to paper later with proper annotations to Master of Thieves. I would have liked to pursue the conversation but I fell asleep and I dreamed again, this time of a white Enderman with yellow eyes and gray markings on its shoulders and back. During my travels, I have come across many variations but never have I seen an Ender that was white. The albino turned and looked at me with dead eyes and wrapped blood soaked claws around my neck while hissing madly. I woke as it killed me and I saw Theo standing over me looking worried, the clan had left half an hour before but he hadn't been able to rouse me. These dreams are becoming serious if I cannot escape them.

That day did not get much better after we sprinted to catch up to the clan with limited help from Kefka and Mel who popped in to show us the way. We emerged from a lush forest and into a plain with odd stone pillars standing in a broken circle like a monument of things long gone; Theo was able to stop before we entered the circle of stone. I on the other hand, could not slow down in time and I ran into the strangest man I have ever had the dubious pleasure of meeting.

He reeked of pumpkins and laughed madly after we hit the ground before pulling his rotting pumpkin helmet on, the moment I got off he slammed a similarly moldy one onto my head (backwards at that) and laughed maniacally as it fell apart leaving me with rotten chunks of it all over my clothing. Mwol'lank, the Endergirl that has attached herself to me, hissed and tried to see what had attacked me with a pumpkin and wouldn't give up until I tossed an emerald to her (she likes shiny things) and she dove at the gem with a squeal.

Jon rocked on my torso and babbled about a substance found in pumpkins and carrots called rodsporin that helps rod shaped cells in our eyes, which is why night vision potions require carrots. Since our vision becomes enhanced by looking through the pumpkin, we can see beyond the veil and see Endermen for what they really are though our minds cannot comprehend everything we see and filters out everything that we cannot accept as reality.

Jon's raving became increasingly insane to the point where he was trying to convince me that all things were connected by strings of invisible energy and that all things we see exist on multiple levels but we are incapable of seeing beyond the first few. When I finally got a chance to talk I asked this stranger why he had not gone to the council with his theories and he promptly leapt off my chest and climbed a pillar to be on the same level as the Endermen's heads. Then he started leaping from pillar to pillar, all while singing madly about being considered too crazy to be intelligent.

If he had gone to the council I doubt they would have taken him seriously at all, in fact they may have him committed if they ever catch wind of Jon's existence, they really don't like things out of order or uncontrolled and he is the height of what they can't stand. Actually I'm surprised he has lived as long as he has.

Henri Lemark

PS: Sven has told me Mels name is said Meh-wol-henk.

A/N I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support and reviews! It really helps me to know that this story can still inspire people to follow and take inspiration from. For those of you NEW to the story this has its own tumblr page where you can learn about a little side project AND chat with the characters if you like! The link is http .com [remove all spaces and replace periods] there are now TWO secondary blogs with story relevant music though the crew page is a work in progress until I can create digital art for each entry

Now to the cameos!

From Mr. Floodwaters we have Master of Thieves, he was fun to add since he was raised by Enders, is a part of a small clan, and has a small pack of reasonably tame wolves. I hope you don't mind that I took some creative liberty with your characters outfit; glowing ink was too good to pass up! Sadly I won't be able to throw Phoenix back into the story without their Creators permission but I don't know who made her, it was an anon request.

From StormStrider we have Jon the pumpkin fanatic who provides some overdue information about WHY pumpkins keep Endermen from being aggro to people who look at them. Kudos on your research and I still wonder why you started to call Henri Bear Gry-.


	44. Chapter 43 (Herobrine Cult)

Year XXXX August 25

Herobrine Cult

Waking up to a young woman standing over you should be a sign of bad luck when traveling with Endermen. For a moment, I thought she was a part of the wall since her clothes where as gray as stone but there's no mistaking a diamond pickaxe when you see one, even if it is heavily customized to serve as a weapon as well. She spoke harshly and told me to move after which she ignored me as I scrambled to get upright in favor of the iron ore I had slept on that night. I cannot tell you how odd it was but I let it slide since Theo was hurriedly trying to get my attention to the clan who was setting out again. I shot this pale-skinned woman a look and watched her flick some hair for her face to look at her ore, she was wearing an eye patch and I saw a scar peeking from under it. Whatever this woman has been through, I wish her the best even if she is antisocial.

As I hastened myself to leave this woman with called out, asking what I was doing in her cave with Endermen. I answered and she laughed a bit as if it was the best joke she had heard in a while, before she turned to look at the emptying cave of ores. With a careless flick of her weaponized pick, she dismissed me from her presence and I felt slighted as I retreated from the cave. I am sad to say that Jon the Pumpkin Maniac is still the strangest person I've met, which leads me to the strangest place I have yet to see.

Never before have I seen such a thing and never again do I want to see it, an entire colony of villagers that appeared to worship Herobrine! Before we were close enough to see the people wandering its' streets Underbite scowled and showed his displeasure about the village by kicking dirt and sand at it with his younger brother Effar doing the same. Normally I would not leave the clan after such a display but Theo and I desperately needed fresh supplies so we struck out to it with Mel, Tiny and Sven following us, it seems to be happening that much more and more often.

The closer we got the more I could see that was wrong with it, every structure was made with Netherbrick and a milky white stone I have never had the privilege of seeing before in its refined state. Everything about the place was wrong, even the church but worst still was the cemetery like place behind it. There was heaviness to the air and a netherbrick fence that did nothing to hide the cracked tombstones, or the odd tomb that rested in the back.

There was a shrine made of netherrack, bricks and iron and in front of the shrine were stone slabs stained with blood, chained to that slab was an Enderwoman with very human eyes. I wanted so dearly to run up and cut her loose when the villagers with their dead looking eyes finally took notice of my apprentice and me and mobbed us. I had no fear of them killing us but there were so MANY of them that I felt overwhelmed as they rushed us into one of the family houses before the Enderman had any time to react.

In a corner of this house, a child played with blaze rods and his parents spoke to us in hushed tones. Apparently, this village use to be normal until eight months ago when Herobrine showed up and defeated some horrible Enderman zombie creatures that were seeking out Iron and anything that related to Endermen. Ever since, that devil has been 'protecting' the village in exchange for certain concessions.

Theo turned green as these poor fellows outlined the sacrifices Herobrine demanded such as villagers over a certain age begin offered to ensure that Herobrine never leaves them unguarded and to catch and detain any traveler that nears the village. In this regard, Theo and I were lucky since the day before a group of Mob catchers neared and avoided capture, the group in charge of the golems took off after those unfortunate people so Theo and I were at least free of forceful imprisonment.

The boy in the corner turned to look at us finally and ran up to Mel with delight in his eyes and a book in his hands, one of my books. I will never cease to be amazed by seeing my printed journals around the world and to hear that people are delighted by my adventures. In this case, this young lad wanted very much to see the truth about Endermen since as a villager in the town of Lute Mardu he was doomed to grow up, have kids, and become a sacrifice to Herobrine once he turned thirty-five.

What his parents wanted, what the village wanted was for their children to be taken away from this place so they could live normal lives somewhere else. Mel didn't understand what was being said but she looked at the young boy with maternal intent and gathered the white clad child up in her arms as he squealed in delight, it must be that empathy I heard about while back in the Jita. The boy, who introduced himself as D'ni, clapped with delight as his parents rushed to pack the child's things including his copy of my books.

I cannot believe there are thirteen volumes of my studies, I really can't. As the villagers herded us out to meet their children at the bloodstained shrine. I had a mind to use my pick to destroy that Enderwomans' bonds but Tiny and Sven were busy doing just that as a cry of alarm went up at the far end of the village, the Hunters were returning. The families pushed their offspring at us and turned to distract the returning raid party while we attempted to escape; a Golem ran down the gravel street and swung mightily at Sven knocking him out of the cemetery and into a cactus.

After that, things became blurry as we were all picked up by the Endermen and teleported away from Lute Mardu. The Enderwoman Tiny and Sven had freed kept up with us well enough but even with their help, we lost villager children as the hunters and their golems hounded us. We spent a miserable night on a steep cliff face where a golem couldn't climb and I emptied my Enderchest of all food since teleportation takes a lot of energy. We had lost almost all of the children to the hunters, only D'ni, a girl who has not spoken a word since her mother put her in my arms, and a young man on the verge of adulthood who called himself Atlas.

Given how things went I am amazed we got even three villagers out of that horrible place but I feel guilty all the same for not having saved more. I doubt they want to travel with Endermen so I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a town or village that can take these orphans in and give them the kind of care I cannot. I only hope that no one comes to hunt them down, I would hate to be the tool by which chaos and destruction was brought to innocents

Henri Lemark

A/N It seems that Master of Thieves author is writing a nice little story about how his character came to be raised by an Enderman /s/9667945 /1/My-Dad-and-I {remove all spaces and a .}

Sorry for the long delay DgmnFangirl1000, I lost Mismaches info in my inbox and I just found her again, I hope you will forgive me; I am not usually this bad with cameo requests though I do hope I got her personality right. *crosses fingers*

From daisy5643 we have Evalia another human/Enderman hybrid but unlike Riley this one is able to choose which form she takes on. I had a lot of fun throwing her in a situation I was going to reserve for some nameless Ender AND she will become a permanent part of the clan at the request of her creator.


	45. Chapter 44 (Lifemates and Partings)

Year XXXX September 4

This past week and a half has gone so quickly that the days have all blurred together, it started with Mel being more protective of me than usual and carrying the emerald I gave her like it was the most precious thing she had ever held. I had assumed it was because she loved the shiny gem but Tiny and Sven kept laughing quietly and shooting us glances, I should have known something was up since those two are thick as thieves and love to prank others. What I noticed instead was that the old matron that had done the ritual binding for Sasha and her mate was once again unraveling a block of dyed wool and speaking to Knell in hushed tones as her great granddaughter watched.

I wondered who the lucky pair was that would be bound together in marriage when I noticed Kefka leaving searching along the riverbank we had stopped at to search out a small cave. Recently a small wolf pack has been keeping pace with us and this has slowed us down somewhat since the males do get underfoot of the Endermen. One of the males is constantly by Keflas' side and has been grooming her, today the whole pack was excited as she dove into a cave and didn't come back out. As I had feared ever since that odd white wolf back when we ran into that xenophobic clan in the desert, Kefka has finally become pregnant and was looking for a safe place to birth her young.

During my distraction, Mel grabbed my hand and I found that I had been walked in front of the matron and her milky eyes passed over us both as she spoke. I was too stunned to pull away as she reached for our clasped hands and wound the string around them with the same solemn air that she had with Sasha. Once our hands were bound together, the matron took out a strange oily paste and anointed our brows instead of rolling her mates pear across our chests. I imagine this is because we are not related to her family but it was still unnerving to have her rough claws so near my face.

String is not that strong but the loops of it around our fingers and wrists keep us from accidentally separating should we should let go. Her long fingers wrapped around my hand affectionately and I was forced to acknowledge that I made a mistake. I would have thought nothing of this union since it was doomed not to produce offspring, nor would I have believed that I would be chosen as a mate but after seeing Riley and Evalia the Enderwoman I saved from that Herobrine Village, I know the truth.

Somehow, humans and Endermen can breed together, and I think I'm going to find out how they do this though I had hoped it would be under different circumstances. I never thought I would be directly associated with their mating rituals and it makes me uncomfortable to think that I can sire a half-breed Enderman with Mel. She looks so happy though, wrapping her long fingers around my hand and helping me get Kefka out of the cave. It is hard though, everything I do, I do with my left hand and that is the one that's bound to Mel, she is delighted to help me. If the string had allowed it, I think she would have carried me all night and into the morning.

Between Herobrine, Effars' increasingly aggressive interactions with Sven, Kefka being pregnant and looking after three villager children my life has gotten chaotic and I'm not sure how the future will turn out. If Sven were run out of the clan Tiny would likely go with him and I would be left in a difficult situation; follow Effar and all the Enders I've come to know or follow Sven who can talk with me? Whichever way I go I now know Mel will have a say since by the rules of their culture we are bound. On top of all this Kefka will not want to travel once she has her pups, they won't be strong enough to walk and too weak to protect themselves from threats. I never thought I would have to make such a decision, whichever way I go I stand to lose something precious to me.

The rest of the week was spent with Mel'lank constantly at my shoulder with affectionately purple eyes; no one else looks like they are going to contest this and in fact Effar seems to encourage it by gazing at me in such a way that Mel feels driven to carry me in her arms. Most nights I barely get to walk more than 45 meters without her clinging to me and at night, it is hard to write since she has a catlike ability to put her hands right where my ink sacks are and spill their ink across the cave floor.

To end this entry, I have had to give Kefka leave to have her pups. I am sad to leave her behind but she is a good and loyal wolf, I'm sure she'll come back as soon as her pups are old enough to travel. Tamed wolves have an amazing ability to track their masters no matter how far away they are and I've been working to train her to better that natural ability. To my surprise she has been listening to Sven too though, he doesn't tell her to sit or find very often.

Henri Lemark

A/N aww look Henri's married~!


	46. Chapter 45 (Pearls and Flame)

Year XXXX September 28

Pearls and Flame

I never thought I would be married, not since I left Emilia behind when I started my journey to study Endermen. Suddenly being married, to an Enderman no less, is very disorienting and I find myself uneasy since I've entered a level of Enderman society I had believed barred to me by incompatibility. Now I watch as Mel'lank hunts out the specific foods that I have witnessed females that are preparing to be mothers eat. Vine tips, cast off husks of fruit, and the occasional flower are what is usually sampled when they prepare to make a baby but as with humans each individual has their own specific dietary urges. She is partial to the Alliums I first saw in Stargrain, rose petals and odd blue flower I have seen in swamps as of late. Theo is in awe of the new plants and stares at the rosebushes we pass and I can see why, these rosebushes are as tall as a man is and full of impressive thorns unlike the single flowers that are common in Vendross.

Mel has been very open about her hopes to have me sire a child with her and I do not think she understands that it is imposable since I'm human for various anatomical reasons. She gets frustrated when I try to explain this to her and insists that it can be done by pointing at Evalia and Riley, with such proof watching me every day I can't deny that somehow a hybrid human/Enderman can happen. As long as Mel is willing to talk about it, I can be reasonably assured that she will not do anything to me to get what she wants but I've seen Endermen use force to get their way. I do not want to be known for being forced to sire offspring against my will with an Ender.

With that said, Mel has gone to Sven to talk and I have not overheard what they talk about, Sven seems fascinated by whatever the topic is and I can see him memorizing every word. Between conversations with Sven, Mel has been spending a lot of time with me and made a point of sharing food; to be polite I follow her example but I feel trapped by the exchange. I am not a married man by human standards but the clan considers me so with the binding of hands with string, which complicates things. Endermen are marital monogamists and part only when one of them dies, there is no such thing as divorce for them.

On a different note, those without a child of their own have adopted our little survivors and are doing their best to keep their charges alive healthy and happy. The little villager that fell in love with Endermen thanks to my writings is delighted by his new parents and is soaking up everything he can. He caught onto the child's games quickly and is more than happy to be the miner in the Miner and Creepers game, and happily imitates the Endermen when he gets to play that role. He even has a talent for Bobstones and his face really lights up when he wins a round.

Tiny has taken D'ni under his wing and together they get into trouble even more so than when Tiny and Sven get rowdy with Annalae's bow, most notably when the villager created flint and steel. Tiny held the tool in one hand and was clicking it to watch the sparks fly from it; Sven passed by and observed the orange motes flying into the air before belching. Sven has maintained his appetite for dehydrated watermelons and both Tiny and the villager threw themselves backwards when the sparks caught the noxious gas and turned it into a fiery plume that was shooting from Sven's face. Even Sven looked startled and he threw himself backwards, flailed on the ground, and thrashed around as if he had been caught on fire himself.

What followed was both amusing and concerning as Underbite swatted the Enderman around until they squealed and he growled at the villager before knocking him down as well into a pile of dust and leaves where the young man stayed. I worried about the lad as he lay on the ground until Underbite, satisfied with his discipline, turned and grumbled his way back to the clan Elders. I really need to find another village for these refugees to live in, Endermen can get rough and the swat D'ni suffered was not meant to do harm but the boy looks winded nonetheless.

Pearls, villagers and, fire; this has been one hell of a strange week

Henri Lemark

A/N: I know I said I would have this out by or soon after new years and I'm sorry for the delay. There was a major plot point here that I had to get perfect before I felt ready to post and until I bounced ideas off Moonlignt63 I was not satisfied with my attempts at how Mel and Henri interacted after being bound in marriage the Ender way. Henri seemed all too willing to participate and responsive to Mels' whims despite the difference in their cultures. As such, Moonlight gets credit for Henri's apprehension as the realization of what being married in the clan is going to mean for him as well as for the events in the following chapters up to the Sven written one.


	47. Chapter 46 (Zombie Village and Vaess)

Year XXXX October 13

Friday the thirteenth, an unlucky day for most men and I am no exception. Things just did not go right today with the exception of a conversation with Sven and the chance to learn a bit more about a young male of the clan whom I haven't had a chance to interact with. He has kept his distance but always I thought he was watching me from the corner of my eye. His lost an eye due to an accident with glass and for weeks after the incident, clansmen told him not to be Cveriss, which he reacted to poorly until the injuries scarred over.

The remaining eye is a curiosity, Endermen are capable of displaying many colors at once showing their emotional state and intent but this one can actually show off the complicated colors I had imagined on the rest. Three, even four colors at a time can be clearly seen in his eyes instead of a blend of two that fools me into seeing a third. This oddity isolates him from his own family but it is not enough to have him exiled from the clan. Vaess ran up to me with a tale of a village where D'ni and the others could go and I set off at once with Mel and Tiny close behind to check it out before I told the youngsters that their travels with Endermen was nearly over.

I am very glad I did wait, it took us forty-five minutes walk to the village and at first, I thought the residents were shuttered in their houses for the night to keep safe from the zombies. Vaess looked at the windows and in the well to catch his reflection many times but I saw neither hide nor hair of the villages residents, just torn bits of cloth and debris of a fight and a great many broken doors with bits of rotten flesh caught on the busted wooden frames. I was about to see if there was an underground refuge when I caught movement from the corner of my eye behind one of the houses.

What was left of the villagers charged from a cave by the village farms with chunks taken from their bodies and shredded robes; they had all been zombified. Even the children had been turned and they ran at me the fastest of all the zombies. One the little monstrosities ran across Tiny's foot and under better circumstances I might have laughed when he kicked his feet as high into the air as he could manage and teleport onto the roof of a house to check for any foulness or injury. As it was, I turned tail and fled from the site of Testificate carnage until the walking dead could no longer see me and I was too short of breath to keep going.

The trip back to the clan was uneventful in comparison and Tiny was constantly scuffing is feet in the grass as though he had stepped in something he found distasteful. On the way back, I asked Sven what Mel had been talking to him about, he smiled as he told me that Mel had told him how little Endermen are born, or are suppose to be born. It is a process I could not have guessed at and given how hushed Sven behaved when he spoke; it must be one of their greatest secrets.

Normally when a couple is ready to have a child they seek out special foods that they use to help boost their natural energy level so they can externalize the raw power of a pearl without it taking on a form. Then they take the hardest thing they can find. In The End, they use the cracked shells of Dragons eggs and those shells combine with the energy they create to make something I have never even considered; an Enderman Egg that looks so much like a pearl that from a distance humans can't tell a difference.

For obvious reasons this method will not work for us since we do not have a Dragons eggshell and Sven is less than helpful with helping me come up with an alternative. Riley and Evalias' existence prove that it is possible for a human and Enderman to have a child but I'm at a loss of HOW it is accomplished. We do not procreate the same way and with the news of eggs I am not entirely sure Endermen are mammals anymore. They care for their young the way wolves, horses, cows, pigs and people do but they create eggs like chickens and Dragons, but I've never seen them carrying eggs, only very small pearls.

With such heavy thoughts leading me back to the clan, I mulled Sven's news over. I have a lot of thinking to do since I now know what Mel may try to force onto me; the energy will be difficult since humans are incapable of projecting anything outside our bodies that comes remotely close to one of their Pearls. Again, I am forced to look upon the alternative if I can't make this work I will find myself on the receiving end of a pointless mating ritual that is doomed to fail. What will Mel do if she does not get to have the offspring she so desires?

I have to think of something and fast if I don't want to find out how far my 'mate' will go to get what she obviously desires

Henri Lemark

A/N: Well I'm absolutely delighted to have my first Tumblr cameo request! Vaess is from askscribblesplashandthehooves. I'm sorry you waited a bit for this without a response from me and I hope I wrote him the way you imagine this gem of an Ender to be.


	48. TSLoE Revamp Finished 11292014

Well that's it I'm all caught up on revamping parts of the story for the new 1.8 and 1.8.1 updates to Minecraft! Those of you that are meticulous may have noticed there are a few new chapters. The reason is.. In the middle of the story I forgot to post a chapter and did not catch it until chapter 38, by then I couldn't tell which chapter was missing from this site so I played through

The need to update and retroactively add Endermites and the like has granted you all new content! In the mid to late twenty chapters... *has forgotten which chapter was added*Also, you get a new chapter (see previous chapter) that I decided I would add once I had finished updating everything. :D

I apologize greatly for the time taken and I'd like to let everyone know that I'm still accepting cameo request. if you have a request that hasn't yet graced the pages of this story please remind me I did a bit of midsummer cleaning of my email inbox... ^^;

If you don't want to read all the previous chapters I'll just outline changes made right now.

- Chapter Titles so you know what each chapter is roughly about if you want to re-read your favorites.

- Endermites are mentioned several times and also why Endermen can't stand them.

- Grammar, punctuation, and Spelling errors have been dealt with.

- Some wording has been changed to make certain concepts easier to understand.

- Added the Missing Chapter

- Failed to remove Herobrine


	49. Chapter 47 (Mel wants Diamonds)

Year XXXX September 21 

Well, things have not changed much between Mel'lank and myself except that she's growing continuously more frustrated with me about mating. There simply are not any dragons eggshells to use and those shells are harder than anything known to man except for bedrock, and obsidian and perhaps diamonds. Since bedrock is unattainable, I will have to try for diamonds and hope for the best, which leaves me with the energy portion of how Enders mate. Lacking any diamond tools obsidian is out of the question and since some roughly hewn diamonds cam be the size and shape of an egg depending on the vein you find. I hope it is an agreeable surrogate for the shell of those dragons.

Mel seems encouraged that I have found a substitute for the dragons shell and she excitedly disappears at night to dig through caves and ravines in search of those rare gems. All that I have left to figure out is this externalization of energy needed to give this 'shell' life but all I can think of is that girl with purple hair saying that when she listens to the right music it feels like her emotions are an energy that can be tapped into by others. I suppose I understand what she means. If one is truly moved by something, it can feel as though your emotions are tangible.

On the subject of strong emotion, I find myself setting aside some cooked meat for Kefka or reaching out expecting to bury a hand in her coarse fur only to remember I let her go to raise a family of her own. A few days after her absence I kept thinking that I heard the soft scuff of her paws on the mossy forest ground or the small huff as she nudged an Enderman for a scratch or food. Even the Endermen seem confused that she is not here with me and the youngsters keep coming to me asking where she's gone. I know Keffy is not dead but her absence is no less sudden or easier to bear.

I have told the kids that ask about Kefka being a mom but they don't seem to understand that wolves raise their pups differently than Endermen parents. I have tried to tell them wolves raise their pups the way rabbits raise their kits, in a den where the mother protects, warms, and feeds her babies, the end result is many harassed rabbits and a few bitten Endermen from sticking their hands into a cornered rabbits burrow. We had the misfortune of harassing a rabbit with red eyes and it chased us relentlessly until the kids had run far enough for the rabbit to thump the ground growl and turned to hop back to its den.

On a different note, the clan has been using stars as their guide and things have been getting tenser between Effar and his son. Sven has been staying as far away from his father as possible and Knell is very troubled by it, she's trying to be a peacekeeper between her grandfather and uncle and I hope to Notch that she doesn't get involved. I have heard of this kind of thing happening during divorces where children are involved, I just hope Sasha and Zephram can keep the girl out of trouble

Those dreams of the man in the light have finally stopped but its' been replaced by headaches the likes of whish I've never experienced before. I have tried several natural remedies I know of and I think I'll have to ask Theo if he think of any kind of cure, these pains are quite insistent but vanish after a few minutes. I am not dehydrated, they come and go without warning and closing my eyes seems to help.

Speak of the devil I feel one of those migraine headache things coming on so I'm going to stop before it gets any worse.

Henri Lemark

A/N: I wonder what's wrong with Henri...


	50. Chapter 48 (Henri's a Papa?)

A/N Sorry this took so long, I've really been bogged down by some real world issues but fear not! Henri and Svens journeys continue!

Year XXXX October 3

*a bit of ink is splattered across the first few paragraphs obscuring a few letters but overall it's legible and the calligraphy seems to have changed after the afflicted section.*

Oh dear. They are making one of those structures that I've seen mated pairs enter. I have no doubts who will be entering but I don't feel ready. Mel brought back some kind of plant whose extract helped with my headaches and they've been absent for a few days now so I wonder if somehow the pain was making it impractical for her to try and make a child with me. The prospect is daunting; she is so much larger and stronger than I am, than any human could ever hope be. If I am unable to complete this energy requirement, I fear what will happen.

I suppose I have little choice but to try what Theo suggested and visualize emotions as a color and try and put that COLOR outside my body to see if it works. If not, i have to wonder how long we will be in there, trying to make it work before we leave. Somehow it does work I've seen hybrids as proof that the method of reproducing Sven told me about wor-

*the handwriting has changed to a larger, untidy scrawl*

Yep! Henri's a bit busy now so I get to write again! Been so long I almost forgot how I hold this little feather thing. I like Otherworld better it had little sticks that held ink so it didn't get all over you.

Yah so Mel'lank dragged Henri into the little hut we all made and his stuff got scattered except for a diamond that Mel took with her. Riley helped me put everything back in my friends little bag since her hands are smaller and Uvvi's wolf helped us fine every last thing of Henris' that was scattered.

Rileys taken a lot of the wool Henri had and is doing something with it and some brushes she has for his hair to make it all fluffy and soft. Says that human-Enderkids have a hard time staying warm so she was gonna make a blanket or something.

I guess she would know she is a mixed Ender.

We passed by another clan today. Well not really PASSED we could smell their passing on the wind but they couldn't smell us. They had blood on their scent human blood and Dad led us away downwind so Henri wouldn't be put in danger. Henri can't get away from troubles, he has to stick around and deal with it since he can't step into another world to escape.

Speaking of Otherworlds Unkle said he was gonna take me Endermite hunting. Him, dad and all the others are gonna go to that place where the parasity things live and exterminate them! This is good, they're itchy if they get in your skin and they hurt when they bite. If we can get rid of them all then things will be better.

Theo's looking at me funny says I'm not writing right. He wants to teach me things called grammar and punctuation because I'm not doing it all right. Just putting the letters in the right order is hard and writing so small makes my hand hurt. Humans say the same world several times but write it different ways, and it means a different thing each time, it's confusing! I don't want to learn new things when the old things are still hard. How can they even write. Can't they talk and remember like us?


End file.
